During the course of his confirmation hearing, Anthony Blinken was asked if he were in favor of putting restrictions on international financing of the construction of fossil fuel facilities. Blinken said that he was.
“I would stop international assistance for the export of dirty technology,” he said. In that context he singled out China’s Belt and Road Initiative, in which China is building many coal plants in order to raise the production levels in developing countries in Asia, Africa, and Ibero- America. Most of the funding for these, however, is from Chinese banks so that any measures taken to restrict funding from “international institutions” would be little affected by such measures. But it will obviously be a new point of conflict in US-China relations, and would be another tool in the attempt to sabotage the BRI.
