China’s Belt and Road Shows the High Price of Beijing’s Money
Xi Jinping’s geopolitical infrastructure project turns 10 this year. He should enjoy the party — the next decade won’t be so smooth.
A bullet train in Laos constructed with the help of the BRI.
Photographer: Valeria Mongelli/BloombergBirthdays are in equal parts celebratory but also inherently tinged with regret, for opportunities missed and mistakes made. All of which may well be weighing on Beijing as its Belt and Road Initiative marks its 10th anniversary this year. For the most part, it has been a success, coinciding with a coming of age for China’s financial and political importance on the global stage. But the next 10 years are unlikely to be as prosperous or smooth. The external geopolitical environment, combined with the nation’s domestic challenges, will make the BRI, as it is known, far less prominent than it has been.
Called the “project of the century” and “China’s Marshall Plan, but bolder,” the BRI’s vision was articulated during a speech in Kazakhstan in 2013 by President Xi Jinping. He evoked a golden era of trade and friendship between the Chinese and the rest of Central Asia, proclaiming that “a near neighbor is better than a distant relative.”