From energy to education, the dragon's claws are pressing on Baghdad

Iraq would be the first beneficiary of Chinese investments for 2021 under the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). Nine billion euros have been earmarked for infrastructure projects. According to Chinese data, Iraq is the third most important Belt and Road partner after Pakistan and Russia. However, some sources deny the Chinese figures. In Iraqi Kurdistan, university students are attracted by the study of the Chinese language. 

Baghdad (AsiaNews) - Iraq is in first place on a list of beneficiaries of investments earmarked by Beijing as part of the new "Silk Roads" for 2021, with funding of almost nine billion euro for multiple infrastructure projects, including an oil plant, according to a study published yesterday by the Green Finance & Development Center of Shanghai's Fudan University. The report also reveals that China has allocated just under EUR 53 billion to the 144 countries of the Belt and Road Initiative (Bri) in 2021, in line with the EUR 53.5 billion of the previous year.

It confirms once again China's ties - in the form of billion dollar investments - in the Middle East, especially in Iraq where it has taken advantage of the US disengagement to expand its business and interests, from energy to education with the construction of a thousand schools. 

Along the Silk Road, figures show a slight decline last year compared to 2020, but looking only at the Middle East and Arab countries, Beijing has increased funding by 360% and construction projects by 116%. Baghdad is the third most important partner among the nations that have joined Bri, after Pakistan and Russia. The two countries are collaborating on the construction of the bn Al-Khairat plant in Kerbala province. 

In addition, China's Sinopec has won the contract to develop the Mansuriya gas plant, not far from the border with Iran. Baghdad and Beijing are cooperating on an airport, a solar power plant and other strategically important projects, confirming the strengthening of the partnership. After Iraq, Serbia and Indonesia are the countries in which it has invested the most in the Belt and Road Plan, launched in 2013.

However, according to critics, the funding offered by Beijing is often unfavourable, non-transparent and makes some countries poorer, especially in Africa, making them dependent through debt. In addition, there would also be doubts about the real extent of Chinese investments in Iraq: according to the China Global Investment Tracker in 2021 Beijing invested "only" €331 million in the transport sector and €1.5 billion in the energy sector. 

The dragon's interest in Iraq is not only economic, but has much deeper cultural repercussions, as demonstrated by the growing influence of the Chinese language in Iraqi schools, especially in the Kurdish area to the north. A Chinese language course has been set up at Erbil's Salahaddin University and, if successful, will lead to the opening of a Chinese language department within the university, ensuring a growing pool from which to recruit workers.

This is confirmed by one of the students on the course, 20-year-old Regin Yasin, who wants to learn the language because "China will take over in the future". The school is a "projection" of Beijing's soft power, to allow the region to "familiarise" itself with China, as explained by researcher Sardar Aziz, who has written a book in Kurdish on China-Iraq relations. Dragon companies dominate the oil sector, consuming 40 per cent of the total oil exported by the Arab nation, but investment now embraces other industries, finance, transport, infrastructure and communications.

In 2017, the Chinese consulate proposed to the university the opening of a Chinese language department, taking advantage of the relative safety of the Kurdish autonomous region compared to Baghdad. The fear that the course might remain empty was strong, as was the risk of not finding qualified teachers, as rector Atif Abdullah Farhadi stressed. He therefore asked the Chinese representatives to find and pay for teachers, textbooks, an audio lab, as well as cultural and study exchanges in Beijing. "They fulfilled all the requests," confirmed the headmaster. In 2019 the official inauguration and, next year, the first graduates will be celebrated. And further 'expansion' is not excluded. Farhadi concludes by pointing out that he would have liked to say the same for the English language department, but the British and US consulates have "never" provided support and help. Unlike the Chinese.