Guesstimates for BRI-related spending have ranged as high as $8 trillion, but a closer look suggests that even China’s promise to provide $1 trillion of infrastructure beyond its borders has not yet been met. Given its ambiguity, the BRI’s size and scope are often misinterpreted. Over 125 countries have signed BRI cooperation documents according to Chinese state media, but participation is no guarantee of benefits, which have ranged greatly. Reflecting these dynamics, the BRI has grown since its announcement to include activities in the Arctic, cyberspace, and even outer space. There have been no criteria for what qualifies as a BRI project, allowing interest groups within and outside China to repackage their own efforts as supporting the initiative. Announced in 2013 and enshrined in the Communist Party Constitution in 2017, it aims to put China at the center of global economic affairs through improving hard infrastructure, soft infrastructure, and even cultural ties.Īlthough the BRI looks like a grand strategy on aspirational maps, on the ground, it has been shaped and skewed by a host of competing actors. Chinese officials aim to use the gathering to help repair the Belt and Road Initiative’s (BRI) brand-which scandals have tarnished since the first forum in May 2017-but promises for reform will require further monitoring and scrutiny.Ī1: China’s BRI is Xi’s signature foreign policy vision and consists of two main components: an overland Silk Road Economic Belt connecting China with Central Asia and beyond and an ocean-based 21st Century Maritime Silk Road to China’s south. On April 25-27, President Xi Jinping will welcome leaders from 37 countries and delegates from over 150 countries at the second Belt and Road forum in Beijing.
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