On this episode of China Uncensored,
Chinese leader Xi Jinping is hosting
the annual BRICS Summit.
And he’s proving,
that Xi’s a BRICS house!
Welcome back to China Uncensored.
I’m your host Chris Chappell.
This week was the annual BRICS Summit
in Xiamen, China.
It’s a meeting between the world’s l
argest developing economies—
Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa.
Personally I think they should have
gone with SBRIC
or maybe BRISC.
That’s BRISC, baby.
Together, these five BRICS countries
make up 40% of the world’s population,
25% of the world’s landmass,
and almost 30% of the global GDP.
Now while you might be thinking:
This BRICS Summit sounds like
the most boring meeting on Earth.
Fortunately, state-run China Central Television
knows how to make it cool.
With a Fast and Furious style death race!
On a volcano!
The meeting faces many challenges,
like dangerous roads!
Lava explosions!
And electric rocks shaped like letters!
But when the road starts to
crumble underneath them,
these five rivals will join together
and accomplish the impossible!
Jumping over a cliff!
Wow, the BRICS Summit
must be so cool!
Let’s take a look at the actual footage.
Almost as cool?
Now I understand why CCTV did that animation.
So what did the real-life versions
of those race car drivers discuss
during their three-day extravaganza?
One thing,
as I mentioned earlier in the broadcast,
is that they’re all angry at North Korea
for trying to upstage their party
with a nuclear test.
But looming over the three day summit
was the intense rivalry smoldering
between the two biggest countries:
India and China.
For about 70 days,
India and China were locked in a serious border dispute
that threatened to turn into full blown war.
And by threatened,
I mean—Chinese state-run media
was threatening war.
And that was just a symptom
of much deeper tensions
between the two nations.
The dispute was eventually resolved,
with both sides saving face,
just in time for the BRICS summit.
And the two leaders both seemed amicable enough...
But things are far from smooth between India and China.
They’re still economic and political rivals.
Oh, and military rivals.
On the Friday before the summit,
China held live fire drills in the Indian Ocean.
Or as the Chinese Communist Party calls it,
the “Southwest China Sea.”
I’m just kidding.
I think.
But speaking of territorial disputes,
those also made their way into the summit.
Xi Jinping was pushing his One Belt One Road Initiative.
He says it will link China and the rest of Eurasia together
for mutual economic prosperity and high-speed car chases.
But India considers it a debt-fueled disaster
that will see China surrounding India
and threatening its sovereignty.
A huge part of the plan involves
the China Pakistan Economic Corridor—
which would go through territory
that India disputes with Pakistan.
Pakistan is of course a major rival to India
over more than just territory.
India considers Pakistan
a source of terrorism.
Yes, terrorism.
That’s another point
that China and India square off over.
Since China is pretty buddy buddy with Pakistan,
the Chinese regime has used its spot
as permanent member on the UN security council
to block India’s attempts to have the leader
of the Pakistan-based terrorist group
Jaish-e-Mohammad
put on a terror blacklist.
Yes, China has blocked the leader
of a terrorist organization
from being labeled a terrorist.
But India won a round on that front
at this BRICS Summit.
In the 43-page joint statement
put out during the summit,
tackling terrorism was a key point.
And it specifically called out
Pakistan based groups
like Lashkar-e-Taiba
and Jaish-e-Mohammad,
alongside ISIS and al-Qaida.
That may put a strain on China-Pakistan ties.
Another reason the Chinese regime
is concerned about India
is its ties to the United States.
Beijing is leery of being surrounded by US allies,
like South Korea, Japan, Australia, and India.
So smoothing over recent tensions
to ensure India came to BRICS
is part of a long term plan
to make India,
and all the other countries,
more reliant on China instead of the West.
A big part of that is the New Development Bank.
It was started two years ago by the BRICS countries.
The idea is to rival the World Bank and the IMF.
The New Development Bank is equally funded
by all five BRICS countries:
Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa.
And it will offer loans for projects in those countries—
without all the strings attached
that Western countries tend to add.
Worthless strings,
like government transparency
and human rights.
The New Development Bank is probably
the most concrete thing to come out of
the BRICS Summits in recent years.
Each country has pledged
$10 billion dollars to it so far.
The first project it funded
is a solar energy plant in China.
And one of the next projects it will fund
is a drinking water system in rural India.
Of course China’s $10 billion investment
in the New Development Bank is small
compared to the $120 billion
Xi Jinping pledged to his One Belt,
One Road initiative back in May.
So he’s still giving priority to that.
But as much as the Chinese regime
would like India to become economically dependent on China,
the plan may have backfired a bit.
Because while Xi’s back was turned,
these two got to talking on the sidelines.
Modi and Putin got to talking about
their own trade and investment deals.
And that was after the two signed defense and energy deals
worth billions last October.
I mean Putin, whose side are you on?
Look, Xi Jinping just wanted to put on a good party.
And of course the US wasn’t invited.
There a Chinese Opera,
set in what looks suspiciously like China’s
sacred territory in the South China Sea.
Putin seems uncomfortable.
There was even pie...or least metaphors about pie.
"The development of emerging markets
and developing countries
won’t touch anyone’s cheese,
but instead will diligently grow
the world economic pie.”
What’s with the cheese thing?
Has Xi Jinping been reading self help books again?
"We will grow the world economic pie
by manifesting it through the law of attraction
of the universe.
Visualize the pie.
The big cheese pie.”
Oh no, he’s moved on to The Secret.
No one show him The Power of Now.
But overall,
relations between India and China are better
than they were during the recent military standoff.
At the same time,
India is still suspicious of what China has to offer.
And that might mean team BRICS
will never make it to the top of volcano mountain.
But at least they’ll always have a big cheese pie?
And coming up after the break,
the Chinese Communist Party is being threatened by ISIS.
Which makes this whole India rivalry
look like a playground scuffle.
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