The Baloch House

Farooq TirmiziMay 29 · 11 min readPakistan’s political and military leadership, and business elite, have stopped investing their capital in CPEC. Now how do we get out of it?It’s over. If ever there was a thought within Pakistan’s leadership — political, military, and business — that Beijing could replace Washington as the foreign capital with the most influence in Islamabad, that idea is now firmly dead. We just have not gotten around to telling China yet.Over the past few weeks, Profit has spoken to several sources in both Pakistan’s business elite circles as well as people who are familiar with the thought process of the military leadership and the picture emerging is not a favourable one of the relationship with China: the more Pakistanis learn about the true costs of the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), the less inclined they are to want to participate any further than we already have.If anything, the signal coming from the country’s establishment appears to be that, far …

HANGHAI (Reuters) - Chinese equity investment in solar, wind and coal power projects in Belt and Road countries has surged from 2014 to 2019, with planned capacity up more than tenfold compared to the previous five-year period, environmental group Greenpeace said.The Belt and Road initiative is a Beijing-led program to boost economic and trade ties in dozens of countries in Asia, Europe and beyond, mostly through investments in energy and infrastructure.According to a study published by Greenpeace on Monday, China’s wind and solar power investments in Belt and Road countries amounted to 12.6 gigawatts (GW) since the initiative was launched in 2014. It had invested in just 0.45 GW of solar prior to 2014.The country has also invested in 67.9 gigawatts of new coal-fired power in Belt and Road countries since 2014, but Greenpeace climate and energy campaigner Liu Junyan said the increase in the share of renewables should be welcomed.“Chinese investors’ ratio of coal to solar is now the sa…

By Michelle JamriskoCity state boosts Belt and Road Initiative for Southeast AsiaSingapore to host regional infrastructure forum in AugustSingapore is ramping up its efforts to be a broker for infrastructure projects in the region, plugging China’s Belt and Road Initiative while pushing for a more “inclusive” approach in Southeast Asia.“We hope people can recognize that BRI is for the region” and that there’s an emphasis on third-party collaboration, Teo Siong Seng, chairman of the Singapore Business Federation, said Tuesday. “It’s not only just about China.”Singapore has emerged as a more vocal advocate for facilitating much-needed sustainable infrastructure projects in Southeast Asia, dedicating a new government agency to the effort, mobilizing the business community, and promoting its own workers as experts in professional and financial services and project management.Since China unveiled its Belt and Road Initiative in 2013, its projects have been met with mixed reviews amid conce…

Europe is wary of excessive capital from China, which might land some vulnerable countries in a debt trap. AFP PICBy DR RAHUL MISHRAJuly 25, 2019 @ 1:08amTHE European Union (EU) is already an enormous investor in Asia and the largest, in fact, in Asean.What are its plans to respond to China’s Belt and Road Initiative?In 2013, China showcased its ambitious objective to shape the international politico-economic architecture: the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).The biggest economic, connectivity, and strategic plan launched by an Asian power, BRI has drawn both curiosity and apprehension among some countries while others simply welcomed it.To gain greater international attention, China had hosted two Belt and Road Forums.The rise in the number of heads of government (from 29 in 2017 to 37 in 2019) at the summits indicates rising acceptability of BRI.One of China’s major achievements in 2019 was Italy’s decision to join BRI.Italy’s move provoked intense debate in the Eurozone — with some h…

GREG RAYMOND ALICE DAWKINSA better sense of South-South
cooperation helps understand the
direction of China’s trillion-dollar flagship.Cranes stand on a construction site at dawn in Sihanoukville, Cambodia, part of an infusion of Chinese-built infrastructure (Photo: Brent Lewin via Getty)Published 23 Jul 2019 11:30   0 Comments AsiaChinaSoutheast AsiaIf scientists are right, 85% of what comprises the universe is unseen, so-called “dark matter” material that neither reflects nor emits light. In recent times, “south-south” interactions have been somewhat analogous to “dark matter” for the West – that is, largely invisible. Studying what developing countries said and agreed among themselves was something of a niche pursuit.We are only in the early stages
of understanding what kinds
of relations will characterise
China and the developing
world in the years ahead.China’s rise, and its launch of the trillion-dollar Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) has changed that fundamentally. While the “de…

Four months after striking a deal, Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte appears less enthusiastic about Beijing’s infrastructure development plan, saying it is not the only game in townPet project of Chinese President Xi Jinping must ‘develop in an open and inclusive way’ and respect EU ‘standards and principles’, Italian leader saysTopic |  Belt and Road InitiativeStuart LauPublished: 7:45pm, 30 Jul, 2019Just months after witnessing a deal to make Italy the first major Western power to join China’s Belt and Road Initiative, Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte appears to have cooled to the idea.Speaking at an annual conference of the country’s ambassadors over the weekend, the head of Rome’s coalition government said that whatever plans China had to expand its trade and infrastructure project within the European Union would have to meet the relevant standards set by the bloc.“The Chinese initiative must … develop in an open and inclusive way, respecting the standards and principles enshrin…

HANGHAI (Reuters) - Chinese equity investment in solar, wind and coal power projects in Belt and Road countries has surged from 2014 to 2019, with planned capacity up more than tenfold compared to the previous five-year period, environmental group Greenpeace said.The Belt and Road initiative is a Beijing-led program to boost economic and trade ties in dozens of countries in Asia, Europe and beyond, mostly through investments in energy and infrastructure.According to a study published by Greenpeace on Monday, China’s wind and solar power investments in Belt and Road countries amounted to 12.6 gigawatts (GW) since the initiative was launched in 2014. It had invested in just 0.45 GW of solar prior to 2014.The country has also invested in 67.9 gigawatts of new coal-fired power in Belt and Road countries since 2014, but Greenpeace climate and energy campaigner Liu Junyan said the increase in the share of renewables should be welcomed.“Chinese investors’ ratio of coal to solar is now the sa…

China Global Security Tracker No. 5January-June 2019By Helena LegardaDownload as PDF1005.52 KBHighlightsNew defense white paper. China released its new white paper on “China’s National Defense in the New Era” on July 24.Military budget to increase by 7.5 percent in 2019. This year’s National People’s Congress, held in March, approved a CNY 1.2 trillion defense budget.US, France, Canada sail through Taiwan Strait, angering China. Despite already tense relations between Washington and Beijing, the US Navy sailed through the sensitive waterway once a month on average.Western researchers worked with Chinese military scientists on AI.Media reports revealed that staff from Microsoft collaborated with China’s National University of Defense Technology (NUDT).Mixed results for China’s extradition requests. In early June, Spain extradited 94 Taiwanese suspects to China. At the other end of the spectrum, the New Zealand Court of Appeals ruled against the extradition of a Korean living in New Zea…