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BEIJING - When China launched its Belt and Road Initiative 10 years ago, it touted huge infrastructure spending linking it with Western Europe, which as recently as 2019, Britain's then-finance minister said had"tremendous potential to spread prosperity and sustainable development".
Such Western doubts have coincided with Xi's assertive leadership and a deterioration in ties over trade, human rights, COVID-19 and Taiwan. Italy, the only Group of 7 nation to sign on to the scheme, is now looking for a way out. Facing such headwinds, Xi is pushing to make the BRI smaller and greener, and to move from big-ticket projects like dams to high-tech ones such as digital finance and e-commerce platforms. The aim is to aid a broader push for a world order that is multipolar and gives the global south more agency, rather than one dominated by Washington and its allies, analysts say.
On Monday, a hotel in downtown Beijing hosting delegations from Russia, Kazakhstan and Congo was buzzing with activity, its lobby decorated with displays of BRI goods and guarded by metal detectors at entrances.More than $90 billion worth of Chinese commercial investment in BRI projects has faced"insurmountable problems", according to data from the American Enterprise Institute think tank.
Ruby Osman, a China expert at the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change, said the summit would give China a chance to showcase some of the global initiatives that Xi has launched over the past two years. The change in the BRI focus is apparent in China's offer of assistance in recent months to Argentina, through doubling the amount it can access through a currency swap line to nearly $10 billion in a boost to its dwindling foreign currency reserves, and enabling it to pay back International Monetary Fund debt and purchase imports.
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