A new report featuring recently declassified documents reveals the complicated history behind Hambantota Port’s debt woes and the importance of avoiding past mistakes as the Covid-19 pandemic pushes more of China’s borrowers to the brink.
China’s hostile economic practices, military expansion, and coercive political and ideological tactics in Africa should not be ignored. However, establishing a clear distinction between detrimental and essential BRI engagement is crucial to fostering development, building common ground with China, and expanding the global market.
China envisions a vast global network of trade, investment, and infrastructure that will bring the world closer to Beijing. To better understand how China’s vision is playing out on the ground, _The New York Times_ examined nearly 600 Chinese-financed projects and the driving forces behind them, citing data from the Reconnecting Asia Project.
The China Road Project, a team of researchers interested in China’s role in global development, will be traveling 60,000 kilometers over land and sea to investigate China’s Belt and Road initiative (BRI), a foreign policy concept and global infrastructure plan announced by Chinese president Xi Jinping in 2013, to help close the information gap and shine a light on the multi-trillion dollar initiative.
This report highlights recommendations on how the U.S. might effectively engage Southeast Asia’s infrastructure challenges to foster greater stability and financial integration in the region.