Free Republic

Over the past ten years, China’s Communist Party (CCP) has strategically relied on its $4 trillion Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) to boost its image and influence with at least 149 countries to date. But success has eluded its efforts, and the BRI strategy may be doomed as a result. Consider for example the CCP’s stalled attempts at pushing the BRI strategy across countries in Europe. Not anticipated were the barriers and delays created by sanctions imposed on Russia for the invasion of Ukraine. Before the sanctions, China used Russia as a convenient transit point for the shipment of BRI...

Chinese President Xi Jinping has proposed a new “global security initiative” to challenge the US’s alliance network – the bedrock of Australia’s defence policy – just days after securing a new strategic compact with Solomon Islands. As Western allies scrambled to assess the fallout from Beijing’s security pact with Honiara, China’s leader positioned his country as a champion of the developing world and himself as a visionary leader prepared to deal unflinchingly with the world’s challenges. Embracing one of Vladimir Putin’s signature foreign policy ideas as his own, Mr Xi called for a new “indivisible security”.