Economic and Commercial Minister Counselor Tian Deyou stepped back from the podium, excused himself, and answered his mobile phone, which had interrupted him for the second time.
As unorthodox as it was to stop mid-presentation to a room full of China hands at the Carter Center, the Chinese Embassy official visiting Atlanta from Washington explained it as a sign of the times.
“President Trump’s government has made us very busy,” Mr. Tian said to knowing laughter from the audience.
But he added a quick caveat, that Chinese State Counselor Yang Jiechi had recently held a productive meeting at the White House. “Hopefully the relationship will be smoothly continuing. This is good news.”
It was as if the phone call was on cue; Mr. Tian had just noted China watcher and former diplomat Michael Pillsbury’s quip that “the road to ‘Make America Great Again’ runs through Beijing,” a riff on the president’s campaign slogan.
“I don’t agree with that, but I think if the two sides can work together, make a joint effort, we can benefit both our countries,” Mr. Tian said.
Mr. Tian and other speakers were tasked with outlining the opportunities for collaboration afforded by China’s One Belt, One Road initiative, a massive plan to enhance the economies of its fast-growing neighbors by investing in long-term infrastructure projects.
It also has the benefit of providing an outlet for Chinese capital and construction capacity, helping keep major state-owned companies — and the jobs they support — churning.
The acceleration of the plan, seen as a soft-power play by some, comes as geopolitical tensions mount early in Mr. Trump’s term. The new president committed a diplomatic faux pas by accepting a call from new Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen, then said the sacrosanct “One-China” policy was up for negotiation before backing away from that stance during a later call with President Xi Jinping.
Mr. Trump has pressured China on alleged currency manipulation and its island building in the South China Sea.
Mr. Tian said the OBOR plan is “inclusive and open,” despite the fact that some key projects are being financed largely by either the Chinese government or new multilateral development institutions created by China, sometimes to the chagrin of the U.S.
While the plan is being backed by $100 billion from the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank and $40 billion from the Silk Road infrastructure fund, Mr. Tian said these loans are done in dollars and that it’s likely that Western-led institutions like the IMF and the World Bank will follow. It’s imperative to stress collaboration rather than competition between the U.S. and China, he said.
“Every single day we have more than 10,000 people flying over the Pacific to each other’s countries. And last year, 4 million people flew over the two sides. We have 300,000 Chinese young people studying in the America,” he told Global Atlanta later. “This is something you cannot neglect.”
OBOR has been criticized as an outlet for China’s excess building capacity and its $3.2 trillion glut of foreign exchange reserves, but Nicholas Kwan, research director at the Hong Kong Trade Development Council, doesn’t believe that’s a bad thing.
“It may be in excess for China … but it’s not necessarily in excess for other people. There are still a lot of places which are short of capital, a lot of projects which need investment,” Mr. Kwan said while pitching Hong Kong as the place where American companies can handle the complexity of dealing with China and the 60-plus countries involved in the project.
He said the current financial development institutions are inadequate to address the world’s needs, especially as their appetite for risk diminished in the wake of the financial crisis.
Henry Yu, a veteran Atlanta banker and a partner in the Asian Investors Consortium, was quick to agree, outlining how China is already working with countries in Southeast Asia on rail projects and on joint ports in places like India.
“There is a big gap to be filled,” he said, though he believes it’s still unclear as yet what mechanism might arise to address disputes that arise on massive projects.
If China’s resourced-backed loans are Africa is any indication, it might be hard for American and Chinese firms to find common ground through official channels.
But some U.S. giants are already benefiting from the infrastructure China is building. Atlanta-based United Parcel Service Inc. is sending goods to Europe over a new railroad link through Central Asia, including Dell computers. Other American engineering and equipmeny firms are capitalizing on China’s largesse elsewhere.
GE Power is working with Chinese firms to build three plants in Pakistan through business ties cultivated over the years within China, said James Suciu, vice president of strategic accounts, who spent more than five years in China and has worked across the world — including in deals in Nigeria with former Atlanta Mayor Andrew Young, whose consultancy helped bring GE into power deals in the West African nation.
Mr. Suciu said the massive demand for power across rising Asia has made China an indispensable part of the company’s global strategy, a big enough market to be worth the cost of some inevitable technology transfer. GE now sells more than a billion dollars worth of equipment through Chinese utility partners — just in its power business, Mr. Suciu said.
China’s willingness to finance projects in regions perceived as risky has been key for GE, especially since the Export-Import Bank of the United States has been out of commission on similar deals since its charter lapsed amid congressional debate last year.
“Without being able to show you can bring the financing, you actually don’t even get to bid. The financing is a core requirement of the deal. In big infrastructure projects in developing or poor countries, that is the nature of the beast,” Mr. Suciu told Global Atlanta.
For that reason, concerns about China’s motives shouldn’t preclude Americans from doing good business in new markets, Mr. Kwan said.
“Here we have the second largest economy in the world, the one with the largest trade volume in the world, the one with the largest foreign exchange reserves in the world, China, putting its money where its mouth is to invest in long-term infrastructure projects, not just in their borders but outside as well. That could make a difference.”
The Dean Rusk International Law Center at the University of Georgia is the presenting sponsor of Global Atlanta's Diplomacy Channel. Subscribe here for monthly Diplomacy newsletters.