"China’s Big Belt and Road Plans for Southeast Asia Hit A 10-year Speed Bump As ‘Political Side Effects’ Mount", 24 September 2023

A decade on from its launch, China’s Belt and Road Initiative has not been the “transformational game changer” many in Southeast Asia were hoping for, analysts say, amid growing concerns over the “marginal dividends” and “political side effects” of engaging with Beijing’s multibillion-dollar connectivity push to grow global trade......

Disputes over land ownership, labour rights, corruption and environmental impacts have been some of the major points of contention with belt and road projects, according to an International Institute for Strategic Studies’ Asia-Pacific Regional Security Assessment released in June.

“Ethnic tensions have also arisen, with concerns sometimes voiced by local populations that Chinese workers on belt and road projects have received higher pay,” it said.

Nur Rachmat Yuliantoro, an associate professor of international relations at Gadjah Mada University in Indonesia’s Yogyakarta, said that even though belt and road projects had brought some economic benefits to the region, fears were growing about social instability and debt risks...

Imported Chinese labour was another issue, said Oh Ei Sun, a senior fellow with the Singapore Institute of International Affairs think tank...

Benjamin Barton, an associate professor of international relations at the University of Nottingham’s Malaysia campus, said that the belt and road “business model” was built on using Chinese subcontractors, recruiting Chinese labourers to work long shifts comparable to those they would at home, a reliance on materials produced in China and securing financing from Chinese policy banks.

Some countries have tried to impose quotas on the recruitment of local labour, but enforcement is often patchy...

“On a day-to-day basis, there have been growing concerns over the financial viability and general added value of belt and road projects,” Barton said...Countries mainly took on such projects to meet development objectives or fulfil specific political promises, he added, with short-term financial dividends not necessarily a primary concern.

“...there will be continued interest in belt and road projects across Southeast Asia, where there continues to be an investment deficit in infrastructure,” Barton said...But there will also be “a significant push for projects which fare better at protecting the environment and demonstrating their sustainability credentials”...

The US and some of its allies have framed China’s “tailor-made belt and road collaboration model” as a neocolonialist “debt trap” that was “damaging the climate”, said Hua Han, president of the Beijing Belt and Road Cooperative Community NGO brd.

“This issue needs to be addressed through more dialogues and communications with the local community to make the Belt and Road Initiative not only Chinese, but also part of the local community’s development initiative.”...