'Economic NATO' futile: China Daily editorial

If the United States is genuinely willing to pursue cooperation with China, the Partnership for Global Infrastructure and Investment should set the stage for the two countries to work together to meet the needs of less-developed countries.

A quick test of whether an infrastructure initiative is genuinely forged as a global public good or not, is whether it is inclusive or not. By that reckoning, the PGII is not.

A brainchild of the Joe Biden administration that it proposed at the G7 Summit last week, the PGII is essentially an arrangement for the richest countries in the world to work together to squeeze China out of the global infrastructure market and stymie its cooperation with other developing countries.

Unlike the Belt and Road Initiative that China proposed in 2013, which is open to all, the PGII is exclusive.

The Biden administration's claim that it does not seek to contain China's development once again rings hollow. For while the Belt and Road Initiative is bringing tangible benefits to the world and has evolved into a global platform to pool efforts for common development, the PGII is simply a geopolitical tool to divide to rule.

United Kingdom Foreign Secretary Liz Truss called for the G7 to "act as an economic NATO, collectively defending our prosperity". In this light, it is evident that the PGII is a cynical attempt to weaponize the needs of poorer countries.

Such a retrogressive proposal indicates the extent to which the developed world has deviated from common sense.

Both the G7 and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization have become headstalls that the US is fastening to the developed economies and the transatlantic alliance members to help it maintain its own hegemony.