On the Road Again! READ Silk Road Kung Fu Friendship Tour Part 37 – Phuket, Thailand by Greg Brundage
MartialArtsMart already carries several types of padded swords.
Tiger Claw Combat Swords
Tiger Claw Action Bats
On the Road Again! READ Silk Road Kung Fu Friendship Tour Part 37 – Phuket, Thailand by Greg Brundage
MartialArtsMart already carries several types of padded swords.
Tiger Claw Combat Swords
Tiger Claw Action Bats
Gene Ching
Publisher www.KungFuMagazine.com
Author of Shaolin Trips
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Where Wushu meets Muay Thai. READ Silk Road Kung Fu Friendship Tour Part 38 – Phuket Island’s Kung Fu Continued by Greg Brundage
Gene Ching
Publisher www.KungFuMagazine.com
Author of Shaolin Trips
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On the Road Again... READ Silk Road Kung Fu Friendship Tour Part 39: Chiang Mai, Thailand’s Rose of the North & Martial Art Heaven by Greg Brundage
Gene Ching
Publisher www.KungFuMagazine.com
Author of Shaolin Trips
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On the Road Again. READ Silk Road Kung Fu Friendship Tour Part 40: Chiang Mai - Thailand’s Rose and Martial Art Heaven continued by Greg Brundage
Gene Ching
Publisher www.KungFuMagazine.com
Author of Shaolin Trips
Support our forum by getting your gear at MartialArtSmart
TCM vs TTM? READ Silk Road Kung Fu Friendship Tour Part 41, in Chiang Mai - Ancient Roots and Modern Thai Traditional Medicine by Greg Brundage
Gene Ching
Publisher www.KungFuMagazine.com
Author of Shaolin Trips
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Still on the Road...Silk Road Kung Fu Friendship Tour Part 42, in Chiang Mai - Ancient Roots and Modern Thai Traditional Medicine Continued by Greg Brundage
Gene Ching
Publisher www.KungFuMagazine.com
Author of Shaolin Trips
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Thai fighting that's not Muay Thai. Read Silk Road Kung Fu Friendship Tour Part 43, Introducing Muay Jeung – Northwest Thailand’s Traditional Weapons and Unarmed Fighting Art by Greg Brundage
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The-Silk-Road
Gene Ching
Publisher www.KungFuMagazine.com
Author of Shaolin Trips
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I'm reflective on this because we've covered it since the beginning here.Belt and Road Forum shows China recalibrating after 10 years
Smaller projects, tech prowess appeal to Global South as Europe grows wary
A sign for the Third Belt and Road Forum in Beijing. This week's forum underscored a new emphasis on "small yet smart" projects. © Reuters
CK TAN, Nikkei staff writer
October 19, 2023 18:02 JST
BEIJING -- The Belt and Road Forum concluded on Wednesday has provided a glimpse of China's future global engagement, likely focusing on smaller projects in developing economies of the so-called Global South, while other countries distance themselves amid high geopolitical tensions.
The forum celebrated 10 years of the initiative, launched in 2013 and inspired by ancient trade routes. Since its inception, China's infrastructure-centered investment blitz has spanned over 150 countries, stretching from Asia to Africa and on to South America. It has driven the "flow of goods, capital, technologies and human resources," President Xi Jinping said in his address to the event.
But the initiative has also stirred unease over Beijing's spreading influence, as well as risks to the environment and debt distress among countries saddled with the bills. With China facing its own issues as its economic growth slows, this week's forum underscored a new emphasis on "small yet smart" projects observed in recent years.
At the same time, Xi still vowed to accelerate connectivity between China and Europe over the next 10 years, integrating ports, shipping and trading services. He also pledged new financing and spoke of creating pilot zones for e-commerce cooperation.
Despite Xi's sales pitch, it was clear that European interest and involvement in the initiative is waning.
Except for Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban and Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic, leaders from richer European economies were conspicuously absent at the two-day forum. Italy, the only G7 member to sign up to the Belt and Road, has signaled that it is looking at withdrawing. Other major European economies are taking stock of their dealings with China.
"There may be some movement on small scale specialized projects," Peter Buckley, a professor of international business at U.K.'s Alliance Manchester Business School, told Nikkei Asia. "Strategic considerations and environmental barriers are likely to rule out larger scale projects from China either via the [initiative] or, more generally projects with any involvement by Chinese state-owned enterprises or firms with state connections."
The Belt and Road Forum featured Russian President Vladimir Putin along with leaders from Congo, Laos, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea and other mainly emerging economies in need of development financing. All told, delegates from over 130 nations attended.
That sheer number "speaks to the continuing appeal of the BRI among developing countries in the Global South," said analysts at U.S. risk advisory Eurasia Group, while Western governments shunned the gathering.
The total number of world leaders in attendance declined to about 20, compared with 36 when the same forum was held in 2019. Several European countries that sent leaders in the past, such as Greece, Spain, the Czech Republic and Switzerland, did not do so this time.
Likewise, "the leaders of Singapore, Malaysia and the Philippines, for example, all declined to attend, though they had participated in the 2019 forum," Eurasia Group noted.
At any rate, Beijing's capacity to extend funding appears to have narrowed. On Wednesday, Xi announced that the China Development Bank and the Export-Import Bank of China will each set up 350 billion yuan ($48 billion) financing facilities to support future Belt and Road projects.
"In the grand scheme of things, the absolute values of these amounts over multiple years and multiple countries may not be significant," said Ammar A. Malik, senior researcher at AidData, a research lab at U.S. university William & Mary.
Malik added that Chinese development finance levels were around $85 billion per year during the early years of the initiative.
Another notable Xi proposal was to push for a global artificial intelligence governance framework to "promote orderly and secure development."
The AI initiative calls for other countries to respect "national sovereignty and strictly abide by their laws," indicating that AI products such as ChatGPT that do not censor their results in China will not be allowed into the domestic market, Eurasia Group said.
"It is consistent with Beijing's attempts to represent the interests of the Global South and oppose U.S. efforts at drawing ideological lines or forming exclusive groups to obstruct other countries from developing AI," the analysis added.
China's competitive edge, be it in AI or e-commerce technology, puts the country in a position of leadership over developing economies. This could pose yet another challenge to U.S.-led allies, if more developing countries reliant on Beijing's goodwill opt for Chinese technology.
Gene Ching
Publisher www.KungFuMagazine.com
Author of Shaolin Trips
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Do you feel lucky? READ Silk Road Kung Fu Friendship Tour Part 44 – Chinese Numbers by Greg Brundage
Gene Ching
Publisher www.KungFuMagazine.com
Author of Shaolin Trips
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Back to PRC. READ Silk Road Kung Fu Friendship Tour Part 45 - Visit to the Chinese Wushu Association (CWA) Headquarters by Greg Brundage
Gene Ching
Publisher www.KungFuMagazine.com
Author of Shaolin Trips
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'political gangs, cliques and interest groups' is the QotDChina’s top corruption watchdog puts belt and road projects, rural strategy in the cross hairs
CCDI to deepen campaign targeting ‘unhealthy practices and corruption’ in rural revitalisation and seek better integrity in belt and road projects
In this year’s work report, graft buster also says it will focus on political security and improve supervision of the regions and across departments
William Zheng
Published: 5:00pm, 26 Feb, 2024
Fighting corruption related to the Belt and Road Initiative and China’s rural revitalisation strategy will be among the priorities for the country’s top graft buster this year.
That is according to the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection’s work report for 2024, which was released in full by state news agency Xinhua on Sunday – two months after it was delivered by CCDI chief Li Xi during a plenary session.
The report said the CCDI would this year coordinate crackdowns both at home and overseas. It said the graft buster would deepen a campaign targeting “unhealthy practices and corruption” in rural revitalisation, and seek better integrity in belt and road projects.
The global, trillion-dollar trade and infrastructure programme and the rural revitalisation strategy are both signature policies of President Xi Jinping.
It comes after Li in November said China was committed to a “clean Silk Road” when he met his Vietnamese counterpart Tran Cam Tu in Beijing. The belt and road scheme is sometimes referred to as the “New Silk Road”, and the pledge to keep it free of bribery and corruption was seen as a response to concerns from the West about the integrity of the projects.
Tran Cam Tu (left), who heads Vietnam’s anti-corruption body, meets his Chinese counterpart Li Xi in Beijing in November. Photo: Xinhua
The rural revitalisation strategy follows on from Xi’s poverty alleviation campaign, after Beijing declared victory in the battle to end extreme poverty in 2020. It aims to make farming more efficient, and for rural areas to be more liveable and their residents better off. To do this, Beijing has poured billions of yuan into building infrastructure to improve market access to agriculture and public services, and to fix problems such as pollution.
The CCDI ordered a crackdown on problems related to rural revitalisation projects a year ago, after reports of regional officials using fake projects to pocket funding from Beijing, and some carrying out superficial work to try to get the projects past inspectors.
In this year’s work report, the graft buster also said it would focus on political security and “show no mercy to those who form political gangs, cliques and interest groups” within the ruling Communist Party.
That accusation has previously been made against senior officials including former deputy security chief Sun Lijun and former justice minister Fu Zhenghua, both of whom were jailed for life in high-profile corruption cases.
The CCDI also vowed to improve supervision of the regions and across departments to ensure commands from the party’s top leadership are closely followed.
“[We must] strengthen political supervision surrounding the major policies of the party and the important instructions of General Secretary Xi Jinping,” the work report said.
Alfred Wu, an associate professor at the National University of Singapore’s Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, said the CCDI commitment to supervise every aspect of governance in China as well as overseas projects suggests that Xi sees anti-corruption efforts and party discipline as key to his political legacy.
“But it remains to be seen what Beijing will do to better supervise the belt and road projects,” he said.
Gene Ching
Publisher www.KungFuMagazine.com
Author of Shaolin Trips
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Back to Beijing. READ Silk Road Kung Fu Friendship Tour Part 46 - Visit to China’s National Sports Training Center by Greg Brundage
Gene Ching
Publisher www.KungFuMagazine.com
Author of Shaolin Trips
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