Stratfor,
an American geopolitical intelligence platform, expressed an opinion
that the main goal of the United States for 2019 is opposing China’s
Belt and Road Initiative. The project is aimed at creating a single
zone of transportation routes that would connect Europe, Africa and
Asia. But in fact China, America’s major opponent, intends to gain
access to the global natural resources. Having closely examined the
possible scenarios, Stratfor’s analysts concluded that this project
can challenge the dollar’s dominance. Here is a bit of history. In
1979 the United States and the PRC established diplomatic relations.
A number of trade privileges became available to Beijing under the
condition that it uses only the US dollars in international
settlements. Thus, this event provided significant support to the
greenback, having raised its status of the world’s reserve
currency. As a result, the Bank of China’s dollar holdings surged
from 2.26 billion to almost 4 trillion dollars in the period from
1979 till 2014. Approximately at that time the idea of a “one road”
evolved.
Following the suit of developed countries, China started to provide loans to less prosperous countries that possessed natural resources. These countries received money and spent a part of it to buy the Chinese gold. They were obliged to keep the gold at the state Chinese banks. Thus, Beijing copied the policy of the Federal Reserve and the Bank of England that also demanded that their borrowers keep gold in the banks’ vaults. In fact, the Chinese program is gathering pace. The media has already compared it to the US Marshall Plan.