China's belt & road initiative - businesses

The actual implementation of BRI ... makes it likely that the costs will considerably outweigh the benefits for the United States. BRI has added to some participating countries’ debt levels to an unsustainable extent. BRI projects are tied to Chinese contractors and conducted through a largely closed bidding process, excluding firms from the United States and many other countries.

China’s push to set technical standards through BRI and its banks’ ability to provide subsidies to firms building BRI projects will likely tilt the playing field in some countries away from non-Chinese multinational corporations, as well as local firms. In many BRI countries, the United States will struggle to keep pace with China as Chinese firms rapidly gain market share and Chinese technical standards become the norm.

When these emerging debt crises in BRI countries materialize, they will undermine global economic growth and macroeconomic stability at a time when the COVID-19 pandemic has already led to the sharpest global economic contraction since the Great Depression. Debt crises also have the potential to increase the risk of a financial crisis.32 Countries that go through a debt crisis will likely endure a long-lasting economic contraction, which would lower demand for U.S. exports.

Finally, debt distress that results in countries leasing back major projects or collateralizing a high percentage of their loans means more countries could become economically dependent on China, which China could leverage to extract political concessions in ways that undermine U.S. interests.

BRI creates unfair advantages for Chinese companies, leaving U.S. and other foreign companies unable to compete in a number of BRI countries.
 
Although Beijing consistently emphasizes that BRI projects are open to all bidders and that it would welcome partnerships with foreign companies on projects, Chinese companies still win the vast majority of BRI contracts. An examination of the contractors participating in Chinese-funded projects shows that 89 percent are Chinese companies, 7.6 percent are local companies (companies headquartered in the same country where the project was taking place), and 3.4 percent are foreign companies. Projects funded by MDBs, however, favor local contractors (40.8 percent), with a rough split between Chinese (29 percent) and other foreign companies (30.2 percent).34 China has used BRI to help propel its construction contractors into global leaders, holding the top five and seven out of the top ten spots in the ranking of global contractors in the world. No U.S. firms are even in the top twenty today.35