West hypes China’s foreign project failures

3gzylon 2015-02-04

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(Global Times) 07:21, February 04, 2015

Western media in recent days has been obsessed with hyping up the frustrations that Chinese-invested mega-projects abroad have encountered. Reports have claimed that China's outbound investment strategy had heavily suffered. They have attracted public attention to the attitudes that the new governments in countries like Greece and Sri Lanka have taken toward Chinese-backed projects, and have made exaggerated interpretations of some remarks by the new leaders as these nations' stance, creating an illusion that Chinese investments are being rejected everywhere.

However, the reality is not as Western media has depicted. According to Greek newspaper Kathimerini, analysts hold that the new Greek government is unlikely to dislodge China from the Piraeus port deal and cooperation between Athens and Beijing is inevitable.

Chinese investments often flow to countries which have two-party or multi-party systems. When Chinese projects could exert a tremendous influence on locals, they easily become political targets and will somewhat be affected by changes of governing parties. Chinese enterprises have to face such risks. As far as we know, Chinese companies and the government have already assessed those risks. Chinese investments are based upon the realistic demands of the local society, rather than the interests of any political party. At the outset, power transfers will cause an impact on Chinese projects. But only time will tell the extent to which the projects are affected.

Chinese-invested mega-projects are conducive to local economic development. They follow the local legal procedures and are transparent. Scrapping the projects will lead to a lose-lose situation, incurring a loss to local employment and tax revenue.

In most cases, because of high reliability, Chinese-backed infrastructure and manufacturing projects are seldom eventually rejected. For societies in dire need of development, cooperating with China is their best choice.

Western public opinion has no grounds to exaggerate the uncertainties between China and some other countries. In the present-day world, no country is willing to subvert its relationship with China.

The "One Belt and One Road" strategy proposed by China is welcomed by many countries as it meets their current demands. China's pursuit of win-win results is the guarantee for its success in "going global."

Due to a lack of experience in large-scale overseas investments, China needs to review experiences from time to time and learn to avoid risks.

Western media often trumpets the unpopularity of Chinese overseas investment approaches as a way to relieve their own sense of crisis.

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