Question Period Note: China's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI)

The BRI is China's flagship foreign policy strategy aimed at fostering greater economic linkages and improving trade routes, primarily across the Eurasian, African and South American continents.

• Canada has not taken a position on China's Belt and Road Initiative.
• We support opportunities for Canadian companies to engage in global infrastructure initiatives that seek quality and professionalism all while respecting international standards on transparency and governance

• Canada calls on China to address the concerns raised by the international community around transparency, governance and financial sustainability in future Belt and Road Initiative projects

In late 2013, President Xi Jinping announced a pair of new development and trade initiatives for China and the surrounding regions: the “Silk Economic Belt” and the “Twenty-First-Century Maritime Silk Road”; which together are known as the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) (also referred to as One Belt, One Road). The BRI was codified into the Constitution of the Communist Party of China following the 19th Party Congress in October 2017. As a top Chinese priority, this strategy will influence China's domestic economic planning, overseas investment and foreign policy in years to come.

The BRI is overseen by China's National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC). According to NDRC, as of November 2019, 137 countries and 30 international organizations have signed 197 cooperation agreements under the BRI. The aggregated trade with BRI countries has surpassed US$6 trillion and, according to China, 240,000 new jobs have been created for the participating BRI countries.

While recipient countries generally welcome funding from China for much needed infrastructure build-out, a number of analysts see the BRI as having a significant geo-strategic dimension: by creating a network of economic inter-dependencies, China is consolidating its regional leadership and hedging against the United States and its allies in the Asia-Pacific region; by investing in critical infrastructure projects such as ports, China is gaining a strategic foothold in transportation routes and supply chains. It is also creating new and integrating existing supply routes that are key to its continued economic growth. In addition to concerns raised as to whether BRI projects are economically and financially sound, or if China is practicing “debt trap diplomacy”, questions have also been raised on whether BRI projects conform to global standards on environmental protection and labour.

So far, Canada's official engagement regarding the BRI is limited to the inaugural meeting of the Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation (BRF) in May 2017 in Beijing, where Canada was represented by Parliamentary Secretary for International Trade, Pamela Goldsmith-Jones. At the Forum, Canada endorsed a non-binding initiative text entitled "Initiative on Promoting Unimpeded Trade Cooperation along the Belt and Road", along with 29 heads of government and representatives of over 100 countries.

The second BRF was held April 25-27, 2019 in Beijing. 36 Heads of Government or Heads of State reportedly participated, including the Czech Republic, Hungary, Greece, Switzerland, Russia, Singapore the nine ASEAN countries.

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