China’s Belt and Road Initiative: too early for success stories

The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) proclaimed by China’s President Xi Jinping in 2013 is a worldwide infrastructure investment move that is attracting a lot of attention all over the world. The motives are diverse and cannot be attributed purely to China’s pursuit of hegemony. That is a major motive all the same but so are internal economic policy and foreign trade. Even if China is mostly pursuing its own interests, the BRI projects can definitely have benefits for the participating countries. Asian regions will presumably benefit most of all. However, the BRI also faces a number of challenges and has attracted criticism. It is therefore too early to determine whether the Belt and Road Initiative will be a success.

China’s Belt and Road Initiative: too early for success stories(PDF, 337 KB, non-accessible)