Few people in the world have not heard of the
Belt and Road Initiative.
This is the massive trading partnership
initiated by China in 2013, which has now grown,
beyond any initial expectations,
to become a major economic challenger to the
G7 group of nations.
This project (which is still growing),
when combined with two other initiatives,
the BRICS (a trading block composed of emerging
market countries) and the Shanghai Cooperation
Organization (SCO), is in a position to
revolutionize the global economic structure.
Together they will impact every nation and every
economy in the world.
All three of these organizations have one
thing in common, CHINA.
For a long time, China has been seen as a mystery,
and even today, despite extensive efforts from
Chinese agencies to foster improved understanding of
their nation, much of the Western world finds China
hard to fathom, creating the potential for
misunderstanding.
It is interesting that for most of over 2000 years,
from 200 BC to AD 1800, China was the wealthiest
nation or empire in the world,
even during the period of the Roman Empire.
At the time, its governmental bureaucracy
was the best organized and most efficient
on the planet.
Its inventions, such as the printing press,
the magnetic compass, paper,
and gunpowder were revolutionary.
Its silks and other products were sought after
across Asia and Europe.
Yet the nation remained a mystery, as periodically,
concerns about corrupting foreign influences would
cause the leadership to shut off contact with the
outside world.
Such actions further deepened the curiosity
of foreigners.
Today China is reaching out to engage much of the
world in a massive project called One Belt OneRoad.
In this program we will examine the Belt and Road
Initiative and consider just how this economic
force may impact all of us for better or for worse,
depending on how we may respond.
This initiative offers our Western nations an
opportunity to examine themselves and do a
reality check on how we are doing in comparison.
It should also carry a message causing us to ask
why so many nations around the world are looking away
from the nations of the West to find partners and
opportunities.
There is a serious warning for the West,
much less a warning about China and its partners
than a warning about what the West is becoming.
It is a warning of impending collapse of
Western wealth and power brought on by ourselves.
Stay tuned.
What is the background to China's present political
and economic situation and ambitions?
This is seldom referenced in modern news media.
China fell on hard times in the early 1800s.
Even in the late 1700s, China,
already weakened by internal strife,
civil unrest and competing warlords in various
provinces, was not prepared for contact
with Western powers.
It was afflicted by the two Opium Wars (1839-42,
1856-60) which saw the Chinese monarchy's central
authority severely weakened followed by
humiliating concessions being demanded by
European governments.
About the same time, the nation was devastated by
the terrible Taiping Rebellion (1850-1864),
the bloodiest civil war in human history,
which left tens of millions dead,
and China's government struggling to hold the
country together.
This revolt was blamed by many in China on Western
religious influences, further reinforcing their
suspicion of Western values.
The once vibrant economy of the Chinese Empire was
all but destroyed.
Eventually the monarchy was overthrown by a
popular revolt in 1911, but the new government led
by Sun Yat Sen was hard-pressed by civil
conflict, political disagreement,
cultural arguments and the hardship and poverty
that produces.
To make matters worse, in the early 1930s China was
brutally attacked by the Empire of Japan,
whose forces inflicted unimaginable terror and
vicious oppression on China for over a decade.
Following the defeat of the Japanese in World War
II, China again fell back into civil war,
this time between the Communist forces led by
Mao Zedong, and the Nationalist army under
Chiang Kai-shek.
This civil conflict ended in 1949 with the defeat of
the Nationalists, whose forces then fled to the
nearby island of Formosa, which was renamed Taiwan.
The Chinese mainland was then reunified under a
strong central government under the Communist forces
and the leadership of Mao.
China's suffering was not over.
Communist or rigid Marxist ideology was increasingly
enforced under Mao's policies such as the
collectivization of farmland (The Great Leap
Forward 1958-1961) and the later Cultural Revolution
(1966-1976).
As a result of these policies the nation was
reduced to impoverishment, starvation,
and serious repression.
Following Mao's death in 1976,
Deng Xiaoping became the national leader and began
the challenging task of restoring China to
economic and social viability.
In 1982, Deng repudiated rigid Marxism,
and opened the door to gradual economic
development.
Leaders that followed, Jiang Zemin and Hu Jintao,
oversaw the social and economic restoration of
China which is now carried on by the administration
of Xi Jinping.
Marxist-Leninism and Maoist ideology are
actually hard to find in today's China.
Western politicians often refer to China as a
Communist state, yet it has a Congress with
elected representatives from eight political
parties, of which one, the Communist Party of China
is dominant.
Its economy looks very capitalistic,
with nearly 80% of urban employment in the
private sector.
This is currently equal to or higher than in western
Europe, Canada, or the US.
This free-enterprise model,
governed by a strong central authority has
worked in China since it is compatible with the
cultural history of the land.
The speed and extent of China's internal economic
development is nothing less than astounding.
While some wish to minimize what China has
achieved, the fact of the matter is that China,
between 1982 and 2022, has grown faster economically
than any other nation in history.
Note a comment from
the Congressional Research
Service of the
United States
The rise of China at the end of the 20th century is
one of the great success stories of all time.
From a century of humiliation and despair,
the nation has, through extremely hard work,
become a world power.
But is this power a partner or a challenger
to the West?
In many ways that depends on how the nations
of the West react.
Let us now examine in this program the economic
development called by most people,
The One Belt One Road Initiative.
This Initiative is the most visionary and
far-reaching international development since
the 1940's.
It draws its name from the ancient trade routes
between China, the Middle East and Europe that were
known as the Silk Road.
There were several overland routes travelled
by caravans, as well as a maritime or sea route that
carried silks, spices and other valuables from Asia
to Europe.
The new Silk Road is a remarkable trade network,
unprecedented in scale and potential,
which now promises to stimulate not only trade
and commerce across Eurasia,
Africa and beyond, but also has,
as a stated target, to contribute to economic
development in emerging economies.
The Belt and Road project refers to two
trade routes.
The Silk Road Economic Belt is the overland
trading network of roads, rail lines and pipelines
that can connect China to the nations of Asia
and Europe.
The Maritime Silk Road is a network of sea
connections linking ports in Asia, Africa,
Europe and South America.
Together they serve to link Asia, Africa,
South America and Europe into the largest trading
zone on earth.
The BRI was officially announced in the autumn of
2013 during President Xi Jinping's visits to
Kazakhstan and Indonesia.
Even more remarkable than the visionary proclamation
is the fact that within a ten-year period,
much of the vision has already become a reality,
with planning, engineering and construction completed
at a pace that could only be dreamed of in the
Western nations
In 2018, 65 countries were linked in this Initiative
by land and/or sea links, which represented 30% of
the world's GDP, 62% of the world's population and
75% of the world's energy reserves.
By December 2023 this had grown to 154 countries
formally affiliated with the Belt and Road,
with seven more considering joining.
It is already the largest trading community in the
world, with partners on four continents and
numerous island nations.
This represents a massive and potentially
self-sustaining trading block that offers much
development potential to both developed and
emerging economies.
So why is it that there is so much negative reporting
about this project in Western media?
More importantly we need to ask,
why have so many nations in Asia,
Africa and South America chosen to embrace either
the One Belt One Road Initiative,
or are seeking membership in the BRICS trading
partnership instead of looking to the West
and the G7 nations?
This is an important question and the answers
are not comfortable to the average Westerner.
Yet if we do not look in the mirror and do an
honest assessment of the situation,
we may soon find ourselves marginalized in an
economic world that is eclipsing what we have
known for so long.
The world order, as established largely by the
United States and Britain at the end of World War II
is unravelling rapidly.
New structures are being put in place to challenge
the old order.
We are entering a time of significant turmoil,
largely caused by new movements and philosophies
in the Western nations that are in fact
destroying the foundations of our own stability.
Our free offer this week is a DVD entitled The
Collapse of World Order.
This DVD will show you why our Western world is in
social, economic and moral instability.
It also points the way to a solution.
Here is how you can receive your
complimentary copy.
For today's free offer call: 866-784-7895,
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As of December 2021, the total investment in Belt
and Road projects exceeded US $4 trillion.
This represents a massive expenditure in
infrastructure to enable everything from resource
extraction, manufacturing and transportation of
products to various markets within the BRI
partner network.
Yet in Western-based media one frequently reads of
decline in investment in the BRI,
and developing nations who are involved being caught
in debt traps and other problems that would cause
one to conclude that the project is a failure and
will soon fall apart.
Is this true?
Is it wishful thinking?
Or perhaps just sour grapes?
It is true investment in infrastructure is
declining, but this is largely because the major
infrastructure development phase is coming
to completion.
A report by the Chartered Institute of Building,
the world's largest and most influential
professional body for construction management,
in a report entitled "From Silk Road to Silicon Road:
How the Belt and Road Initiative Will Transform
the Global Economy," published in 2019,
states:
To give an idea of the impact of the Belt and
Road on the economy of a region,
one need look no further than to two examples in
Africa, a continent in which most nations are
Belt and Road partners.
In November 2023, construction began on a
massive new project.
This will result in the opening of a new gateway
to Africa.
An agreement was signed to start the development of a
new super port at Bagamoyo in Tanzania.
The planned size is breathtaking.
Tanzania, in a very short time,
will be home to a port with greater capacity than
any in Europe.
It will be a BRI gateway to twelve resource-rich,
landlocked nations in Africa with a combined
population of 300 million.
It will be an export exit for billions of dollars of
resources and an entrance for Chinese goods.
Combined with this is the policy of the present
Chinese government to focus on what it calls
"developmental aid."
An even larger port has been developed in the
Ivory Coast at Abidjan.
While resources are exported through the port,
a massive flow of goods from China and other Belt
and Road nations are entering.
At the same time Chinese experts are sharing skills
and technical expertise in new technologies with
local citizens. I attended a presentation in 2015
given by then Chinese premier Li Keqiang,
who explained BRI philosophy behind
"developmental aid." This is somewhat defined in a
paper published by the Carnegie Endowment for
International Peacewhich points out that the
Chinese policy paper on Developmental Aid notably
targets poverty reduction, food security, healthcare,
high-quality education, infrastructure,
sustainability, economic growth,
and environmental protection.
The focus in the Chinese delivery is to create
within the assisted country the incentive and
skills to develop their own resource and market
them through the facilitation of the Belt
and Road Initiative.
The idea is to provide aid that creates truly
sustainable economic growth.
Now the same paper points out the criticism that the
debt incurred by some of the developing countries
is such that it becomes an unpayable burden.
Yet, as the Chartered Institute of Building
pointed out, in the long run the legacy to these
nations is the continued means to create wealth.
In cases where debt has been unpayable,
the Chinese have bought back the facility on terms
of a 99-year lease, where Chinese companies operate
the facility, and still permit economic benefit to
occur to the local population.
The debt load to Sri Lanka as a result of the huge
Hambantota International Port has been resolved
in this way.
One other aspect of the Belt and Road is
seldom mentioned in the west but
is important to note,
and that is the academic development
of partner populations.
Already many joint-investment
scientific laboratories have been developed in
which academic research and information sharing
among partner nations is occurring at an
accelerating pace, often catching up to or passing
Western research activities which often
lack sufficient funding.
The Asia Times reported in October 2023:
The BRI is now consisting of a massive number of
facilities including super ports,
tens of thousands of miles of rail and roads,
as well as pipelines between all continents
except North America.
From the Chinese perspective the project is
now moving, to return on investment and from the
development of partnerships and
infrastructure to one of a sustained "Global
Development Project," which is becoming its new moniker.
The fact that to date, 150 nations from at least four
continents have bought into this massive
undertaking means they have hopes that it can
assist in generating increased prosperity,
and is one that does not demand social
or political change.
The other reality is that these nations are no
longer looking to the United States,
the United Kingdom or western Europe for
leadership or support.
This should be a canary in the mine for the nations
of the West.
In the last part of the program today,
we will examine just why these nations have turned
away from the West, and are rejecting what we have
to offer.
The reason is something we should carefully consider,
what our peoples have to correct before we become
isolated and rejected by most of the world.
I hope you take time to order our special offer
this week, The Collapse of World Order,
which contains three programs that will explain
why Western society and values have been
repudiated by most nations in the world today.
This clear and straightforward resource
will help you understand this vital truth,
straight from the pages of the Bible.
Call now or go to TWTV.org/collapse.
For many decades the nations of the West have
been providing various forms of aid and
assistance to nations of the developing world.
In the 18th and 19th centuries,
western European powers were able to acquire
empires that occupied a large part of the world.
The European empires imposed their culture and
often their religion on societies that were deemed
less developed or weaker.
Now much can be said about the negative effects
of colonialism.
Honest historians will acknowledge that some
peoples fared better than others depending
on which empire they were a part of.
There is also the fact that in most cases some
positive development in terms of modern education,
health care, standard of living and such did occur.
However, upon the dissolution of these
empires there was, in many cases,
a lingering resentment, which initially was
somewhat softened by the granting of independence
to new countries that were residual from the days of
European imperialism.
In the thirty to forty years after the Second
World War, the quest for local development was at
times assisted by various aid programs
from Western nations.
However, as some of these nations began a new social
revolution (for that is what it must be called)
over the past 25 years, many of the peoples of the
developing world have been increasingly repulsed by
what they perceive as pressure or even coercion
from some Western nations or agencies to accept
social changes that are deemed improper
by the local cultures.
Western ideas related to birth control and
abortion, gender roles, gender fluidity,
the role of women in society and other such
constructs, are often severely at odds with the
social, cultural, and religious traditions
of other nations.
The Government of Canada, as an example,
put forward Canada's Feminist International
Assistance Policy.
This set a framework for social change on the part
of any government that would expect to receive
certain types of aid from Canada. Governments of the
United States and some nations of western Europe
did the same.
This has largely been deemed interference in the
social lives of independent nations on the
part of many developing countries.
They view us as pushing that which is immoral and
improper upon them, citing a new manifestation
of colonialism.
In some cases, they must acquiesce to such in order
to acquire aid or even economic partnerships.
This sort of coercion is not experienced in
dealings with Belt and Road partners.
Sadly, many of them see the Belt and Road as
preferable to that which is offered by nations
of the West.
They see the latter as requiring change to the
social, moral and societal norms of centuries,
including a demand that Western styles of
governance be implemented, which also can be unsuited
to the cultural traditions of the nation in question.
Clearly, the majority of nations are choosing a
non-Western alternative, and may even soon adopt a
non-Western currency of exchange.
It might be wise for Western leaders to
consider that if they had been more respectful,
things may be different today,
as they watch resource-rich areas and
developing markets chose a non-Western alternative.
Maybe we of the West could have been a better
example-maybe we still could.
Two millennia ago one of the greatest scholars of
his day wrote down some advice,
which if it had been followed would have
resulted in a different view of the West,
and would have been very good for business:
As we atTomorrow's World have shown through both
Biblical and historical evidence over the years,
the nations of the Anglo-Saxon world and some
of the peoples of western Europe are clearly
identified in Biblical prophecy.
With that identification comes a warning of the
kind of decadence we would embrace at the end of the
age, and the details and characteristics of our
predicted impending fall are assured if we as
nations do not alter our attitudes and behaviour.
Many nations in the world view our peoples as
corrupt, immoral, and violent;
they no longer believe we are seeking the best
interest of others.
Long ago Israel was warned that there would be severe
consequences for repudiating the guidance
provided to them by the God who had made Himself
accessible to them through His teachings and laws.
There were severe penalties for violating a
way of life that defines what morality and decency
should be.
Israel was prophesied to become,
for a time near the end of the age,
a great and powerful entity that would be
unchallenged.
However, if they departed from the morality defined
by God through the text He had preserved for them,
they would afterwards be hated by the nations of
the world, who would turn on them because
of their ways.
As we conclude, think of this.
There are 195 recognized nations in the world
today.
At present 150 are members of One Belt One Road,
with others considering joining.
It is not popular to say this,
but the English-speaking world and their western
European allies are having their modern culture
rejected by the vast majority.
There is a cause for every effect.
We have stepped so far away from the directions
of Biblical law, especially in the last few
decades, that we are losing the respect of the
world due to our behaviour and even the behaviour of
those who lead our peoples.
We like to put the blame for our problems on other
nations, when we should really be looking in the
mirror, doing some self-reflection and
correcting behaviours that are self-destructive.
It is not too late to change this,
and this change must come from all walks of life,
but especially from the leaders of the nations.
I hope you will take the opportunity to order our
special DVD, The Collapse of World Order.
This DVD outlines some of the key causes of the
impending collapse of our Western civilization.
The rejection of the family and the concept of
patriarchy, a repudiation of proper morality and
excessive greed are destroying us.
Please join us again next week when Gerald Weston,
Michael Heykoop and I will bring you not only the
truth of today's world, but the hope of a great
and wonderful future that does lie ahead in
Tomorrow's World.
For today's free offer call: 866-784-7895,
or go to TWTV.org/collapse.
Call today and join millions around the world
who are turning to Tomorrow's World for
Truth, Prophecy and Hope in these confusing times.
The preceding program is produced by the
Living Church of God.