Against the backdrop of a global financial meltdown and a still-expanding coronavirus pandemic, leaders of the Group of 7 met today in the opening session of their summit, to show that, as two U.S. administration officials put it in a press briefing yesterday, that “democracies” always work better than “autocracies"—read China and Russia, among others—and that “democracies can deliver against the biggest challenges we are facing in the world.” While blathering about the need to formulate a plan for a sustainable, inclusive economic recovery, attendees are focused on coming up with a green alternative to the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI)—a “Clean Green Initiative,” better named the “Gangrene Initiative.”
While no details of this initiative have yet been revealed, the two administration officials spelled it out quite clearly. Since China is accused of being non-transparent, corrupt, a climate polluter and manipulator of poor nations, they said: “in terms of infrastructure and the enormous need for low- and middle-income countries around the world to have their infrastructure requirements met, the G7+ will embrace a high-standards, transparent, climate-friendly, non-corrupt mechanism for investing in the physical, digital, and health infrastructure of low- and middle-income countries. It will be an alternative to that which other countries, including China, are offering.”
