Chinese debt relief diplomacy wins over Western economic diplomacy: Expert

Shakeel Ahmad Ramay, Director, Asia Study Center SDPI, said that we need to understand Chinese ontology of relation to understanding China’s international relations policy, which means that Chinese policy is driven by shared interests and therefore, guided by principles of order, harmony, respect, ethics, and fraternity. Whereas, Western philosophy revolves around self-interest, as is evidenced by international institutions like IMF, World Bank etc which serve the interests of powerful Western countries. From the inception, these institutes have promoted liberal democracy and capitalism through a number of policies that have indebted third world countries. Ramay writes that in the first phase, the institutes introduced infrastructural development in a bad spirit, and then introduced structural adjustment programs, all of which required the third world countries to take up loans. Then the West equated economic strength to weaponizing the economy, and so the prosperity of people became subservient to military power. Diplomacy then was tasked to re-adjust focus and play a leading role to secure the economic interest, which resulted in the introduction of economic diplomacy. However, China then presented an alternative with its win-win cooperation. China launched comprehensive investment policies and programs to help countries come out of the debt trap, which can be called debt relief diplomacy. This is in line with Confucian teachings. The roots of debt relief diplomacy can be traced from the launch of Go Global policy to the latest multi-billion BRI project. President Xi introduced the concept of a community with a shared future and prosperity for everyone without any discrimination. This has proven to be a good model, especially beneficial to countries like Pakistan.