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China鈥檚 BRI: Development or Debt?

In the ten years since the BRI was launched, 152 countries have collaborated with China to develop their infrastructure in an aim to improve trade links. But is it a success?

It has been a decade since Chinese President Xi Jinping's launched the Belt and Road Initiative, an ambitious plan to connect Asia with Africa and Europe through a series of land and sea networks via investments in local infrastructure. But ten years on has it been - as some claim - a debt trap for some developing economies, a road to nowhere? Or has the sweeping infrastructure project - which has funded trains, roads and ports in many countries - successfully expanded global trade links and helped the economic development of countries in Africa and Asia?

Shaun Ley is joined by Eyck Freymann, economic historian and China specialist, currently a Hoover Fellow at Stanford University; Niva Yau, political scientist from Hong Kong and a non-resident fellow with the Atlantic Council鈥檚 Global China Hub; Kerry Brown, professor of Chinese Studies and director of the Lau China Institute at King's College, London.

Also featuring: Pakistan Senator Afnan Khan, Pakistan Muslim League, Victor Gao of the Beijing based Centre for China and Globalisation, a think tank with links to the governing Chinese Communist Party and Nicola Procaccini, Member of the European Parliament from the Fratelli d'Italia party

(Photo: Chinese President Xi Jinping waves to children upon arrival at Islamabad airport in Islamabad, 20 April, 2015. Credit: Pakistan Presidency Press Information Department /Getty Images)

Producer: Rumella Dasgupta and Ellen Otzen

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49 minutes

Last on

Sat 14 Oct 2023 14:06GMT

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