The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has stepped up tech collaboration with eastern European and central Asian countries within the framework of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), according to leaked government documents The Epoch Times recently obtained from a trusted source. An analyst believes this is an attempt to counter the West’s attempts at limiting transfer of intellectual property to China.
BRI is Beijing’s foreign policy project to build political influence via investing in infrastructure projects throughout parts of Asia, Europe, and Africa.
One of the documents suggests that in June 2018, amid the U.S.-China trade war, the CCP established the Belt and Road Alliance for Science and Technology (BRAST), an agency to coordinate tech cooperation between Beijing and BRI-participating countries.
Screenshot of an introduction of the BRAST from the leaked government document. (Provided by The Epoch Times)
On Nov. 28, 2018, the international cooperation department of the CCP’s Ministry of Science and Technology issued a notice, stating that it is partnering with former members of the Warsaw Pact (also known as the Warsaw Treaty Organization) to build an international tech alliance.
The Warsaw Pact was established by the Soviet Union in 1955 as a counterweight to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). It was a military alliance between the Soviet Union and seven Eastern Bloc communist states: Albania (withdrew in 1968), Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Hungary, Poland, and Romania. The Pact was dissolved in 1991…
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