the Eurasian economic Union and the «One belt – one road» and turning it into a new center of economic and political development at the global level. However, it is worth noting that China is mainly focused on the development of the bilateral relations with each member of the Union individually.
Lately China is accused of opacity and often enslaving terms of agreements, unfair choice of contractors, failure to meet deadlines, untimely provision of promised loans, construction of «white elephants», and damage to the environment. Thus, according to China Global Energy Finance database in 2018 the share of «coal» projects in the project “One belt – one road” was 42%38.
Beijing is also accused of pumping the developing economies involved in the project with loans and debts. The West has even coined a new term – «debt trap diplomacy». In 2019 at the international cooperation forum “One belt – one road” in Beijing the Chinese President promised to become more open to Western investors. China assures the countries that the project has only an economic orientation; however, it is clear for everybody that by increasing economic power the country will gain geopolitical influence39.
The resume
In summary it can be noted that a feature of the Russian and Chinese cooperation in whole and within the framework of the project “One belt – one road” can be called a high level of institutionalization. The economic process is mainly from the top supporting a high political activity of two countries. The Chinese investors act very carefully, and they prefer to conclude agreements rather than invest.
As practice shows a specificity of the Chinese approach is a long-term investigation of the market в длительных переговорных процессах and long negotiation processes that may end up with zero results. So during the reducing of its investments and withdrawing money from the Russian economy in 2018 and 2019 China refused to finance the pipeline “The force of Siberia”, invest in the construction of the Russia’s largest gas processing plant in the Amur region and considered the high-speed railway the Eurasia which was supposed to connect Beijing, Moscow and Berlin unprofitable. Chinese investment companies are often connected with the government financing therefore their investment decisions in many respects are not always motivated only by financial indicators. In our opinion at present the Russian participation in the project “One belt – one road” has mainly potential advantages and possibilities and real results for the Russian economy are very insignificant.
References
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China urged to speed up the pairing of the EAEU with the project «One belt – one road» 17.10.2018. URL: https://www.vestifinance.ru/articles/108722 (date of access: 13.12.2019). (in Russian)
Eastern economic forum 2019. URL: https://roscongress.org/events/vostochnyy-ekonomicheskiy-forum-2019/ (date of access:15.12.2019). (in Russian)
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International experts positively assessed the results of the forum «One belt and one road» in Beijing 08.05.2019. URL: https://news.rambler.ru/other/42154117-mezhdunarodnye-eksperty-polozhitelno-otsenili-itogi-foruma-odin-poyas-odin-put-v-pekine/ (date of access: 14.12.2019). (in Russian)
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Transit with a Chinese accent. 21.12.2017. URL: https://www.vedomosti.ru/newspaper/articles/2017/12/21/746034-tranzit-kitaiskim (date of access: 15.12.2019). (in Russian)
Where will the Silk Road lead Russia 27.04.2019. URL: https://newtvnews.ru/ economics/2019/04/27/pan-ili-propal-kuda-zavedet-rossiju-shelkovyj-put/ (date of access: 16.12.2019). (in Russian)
国驻俄罗斯大使李辉: “一带一路” 倡议开启中俄共同发展的新航程 = The Chinese Ambassador to Russia Li Hui: «The one belt – one road” Initiative opens a new path for the joint development of China and Russia. URL: https:// baijiahao.baidu.com/s?id=1610935269955576597&wfr=spider&for=pc (date of access: 18.12.2019). (in Chinese)
2. Юго-Восточная и Южная Азия: в поисках ответов на глобальные вызовы
Асеан в «смелом цифровом мире»
На фоне экспертных оценок деятельности АСЕАН и прогнозов вероятных тенденций ее развития отклик Ассоциации на вызовы, порожденные Четвертой промышленной революцией, приобретает исключительно большое значение. Оценивая достижения АСЕАН в «предцифровую» эпоху как основу ее политики по противодействию цифровым вызовам, авторы определяют степень нынешней и перспективной готовности Ассоциации эффективно управляться с ними. Выделяя исследование из числа большого количества работ о влиянии Четвертой промышленной революции на АСЕАН, авторы проводят следующую центральную мысль – основная уязвимость АСЕАН проистекает из взаимного наложения застарелых и нынешних проблем, что обусловило основную причину недостаточной готовности Ассоциации управляться с цифровыми вызовами,
Where will the Silk Road lead Russia 27.04.2019. URL: https://newtvnews.ru/economics/2019/04/27/pan-ili-propal-kuda-zavedet-rossiju-shelkovyj-put/ (date of access: 16.12.2019).
International experts positively assessed the results of the forum «One belt and one road» in Beijing 08.05.2019. URL: https://news.rambler.ru/other/42154117-mezhdunarodnye-eksperty-polozhitelno-otsenili-itogi-foruma-odin-poyas-odin-put-v-pekine/ (date of access: 14.12.2019).
