2024 marks a decade old reign of the belt and road initiative, both disputed and disparaged. In a global polemic between geopolitical experts, The BRI stands out as a very diplomatic yet trappy policy programme of the Chinese empire, gearing up to establish its supremacy in fields more than one. Spanning from Africa to Asia and seeing investments worth billions of dollars, it has also come under criticism over the years about how sustainable and promising these debts develop into. Though there isn’t any doubt about the ambitiousness or success of the project so far, it has been argued that the BRI now, has become a somnolent policy weapon, with drying funds, struggling partner countries, global criticism and no polishing at all.
It started off with heavy state-driven investment into solid infrastructure plans abroad. Most of the calculated $1tn (£820bn) has been poured into energy and transport projects, such as power plants and railways, with oil-rich countries taking the bigger portion of the pie. It had very limited success in meeting its goals, such as internationalising the yuan and solving Chinese overcapacity so that the need to create infrastructure at home is eliminated. China is now the world’s biggest international creditor. A huge surprise is that the true scale of the debt – thought to be at hundreds of billions of dollars – is not known. Many of the loans are covered in secrecy. As this fares dangerously for the future of the world entirely, there is still an angle of security to it as the BRI might not be dead, but evolving into an alligator underwater.
The Birth of Belt and Road Initiative
Image Credit – ISS.
About the Author
Guncha Shandilya is currently pursuing Bachelor of Arts in History (Honours) at the Delhi College of Arts and Commerce. She is currently a part of the editorial team at The Viyug. She is a research officer at Old World Order, Head of Research at Prakriti and part of creative team at ‘GirlUp Tara.’
