Modernization theory refers to a body of theory that became prominent in the 1950s and 1960s about understanding issues of economic and social development and creating policies that would assist economic and social transitions for the betterment of society.

The world is moving fast in its speed for more and more advancement while comparatively there are divisional and proportional disadvantageous states that are not even in the space to become modernized states.

Infrastructure spending in China has long been a major factor in the country’s economic expansion. The government, which has prioritized cutting government debt and raising spending over investment growth during the last ten years, is now hoping that infrastructure construction can continue to drive growth in the face of a slowing economy, as it has in the past. Financing will mostly go to sustainable infrastructure projects like digitization, transportation, affordable housing, and public sanitation that will help safeguard the nation’s future while the central government maintains strict control over monetary and fiscal policy.

In contrast, the industry saw more encouraging outcomes in 2021, with investment rising 11.4 percent, a sharp increase from just 0.1 percent growth in 2020. Out of all of these, manufacturing experienced the biggest increase in investment, gaining 13.5 percent year over year after declining by 2.2 percent in 2020. Mining increased by 10.9 percent, up from a 14.1 percent decline in 2020, but investments in the production and supply of gas, electricity, heat, and water increased by just 1.1 percent, a notable decrease from the 17.6 percent rise in 2020.

China’s loans and development and energy financing to Africa, Latin America, and the Caribbean are tracked in several extensive databases maintained by the GDP Center’s Global China Initiative since 2017. Several developing countries have seen an increase in economic growth as a result of the initiative, according to the center’s research, “The BRI at Ten: Maximizing the Benefits and Minimizing the Risks of China’s Belt and Road Initiative.” They discovered that it had also aided in the development of institutions led by the Global South that offered funding, increased access to energy, and eliminated infrastructure bottlenecks.

The initiative’s tenth anniversary will be celebrated by China with a high-profile ceremony in Beijing. Gallagher is a professor of global development policy at the Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies and is one of the guests. He discussed the lessons his team will be teaching about the initiative’s first ten years with The Brink before leaving, as well as whether the Chinese government would be receptive to his suggestions for enhancing it and what would happen if Russian President Vladimir Putin showed up unannounced.

At a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 6.32%, the size of the China infrastructure market is projected to increase from USD 1.03 trillion in 2023 to USD 1.40 trillion by 2028.

The nation’s governments, companies, and citizens all suffered economically as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Furthermore, owing to staffing shortages, supply chain hiccups, or delayed government permits, the pandemic caused work to be halted or delayed. The government promoted investment in the sector after relaxing the prohibitions, acknowledging the significance of infrastructure projects for the restoration of economic livelihoods.

The Chinese cabinet declared in 2021 that there might be a rise in infrastructure spending in the next five years in the areas of smart logistics, transportation, satellite navigation, industrial internet, and telecommunication networks. Conversely, the State Council of China announced additional incentive policies in August 2022, including quotas for bank investments and infrastructure spending of CNY 300 billion (USD 44 billion), in addition to the CNY 300 billion (USD 44 billion) already announced at the end of June 2022.

China’s embrace of a market economy and private sector has led to its rapid economic expansion. China has some of the most liberalized markets in the world: it is the biggest trading partner and the country that receives the most FDI, with plans to overtake the US in 2020. Home infrastructure is the main area of concentration for government spending. Compared to the United States, China currently possesses better airports, railroads, bridges, and roadways. The world’s longest high-speed rail system, for instance, was constructed by it throughout the last 15 years.

The length of it is twice that of the entire globe, measuring 22,000 miles. Amtrak’s fastest route takes 22 hours to reach Chicago, whereas China’s high-speed train could reach Boston in roughly four hours. Even with years of increases, China’s defense budget still only makes up around 25% of that of the US, which helps explain why it can spend so much on infrastructure.

There is no tax on personal capital gains in China, and the country is currently developing an inadequately defined social safety net. China outlined billionaires three times faster than the United States in 2020 and had more billionaires than the United States. As a result, according to the Gini coefficient, inequality in China is higher than in the US. Despite a crying need for better infrastructure, investment in it has fallen in 10 major economies, including the U.S., since the financial crisis, according to a new study by the McKinsey Global Institute. Meanwhile, China is still going gangbusters on roads, bridges, sewers, and everything else that makes a country run.

A succinct comparison of infrastructure developments in the US and China is presented. The world-system approach was selected as the methodological foundation because it views the objective potential and constraints of China’s and America’s strategies as interrelated components of the global economy and politics. The world-system perspective and the place of the People’s Republic of China in the contemporary system of international relations are discussed in the first section of this article.

The Chinese Belt and Road Initiative is covered in detail in the second section. An examination of counterinitiatives proposed by the US is included in the third section.

Contradictions between Americans and Chinese people are starting to play a major role in the new international relations order. The parties started to shift to strategic rivalry after the notion of creating effective collaboration between the two nations—including the so-called Great Two (G2) in the early 2010s—failed. The focus on trade, economics, and technology is one oddity.

The way that events are unfolding calls for the United States to adopt completely new strategies that they have never used before. Military, political, and ideological factors dominated the conflict with the Soviet Union. While fighting the Soviet Union, the United States derived financial support from trade, foreign direct investment, and technological leadership in the civilian sector. Currently, these regions are becoming the focal points of the conflict between the USA and China.

There is a defined comparison of the infrastructural development of China in comparison to the USA. It is reasonable to assume that, should American projects face unfavorable development dynamics, the country will truly be in danger of losing its position as the world’s leader. This will exacerbate the competition for resources and markets on the periphery and result in a general destabilization of international relations. As long as this alternative is pursued, there is a good chance that the US-Chinese rivalry will become more militarized in other parts of the world, given how much more potent the US military is at this point.