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Belt and Road

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At the coalface

China blocks funding to coal power in Bangladesh but not at home
Mar 19, 2021 (WiC 532)

Bangladesh’s bet on coal-fired power is a contentious choice for a low-lying country prone to flooding. Perhaps that was why it said it was reconsidering the 29 coal power plants in the development pipeline last year, although there were also ...

The missing link

Slow progress for China’s ‘Pan-Asian’ railway
Nov 6, 2020 (WiC 517)

Will China’s new railway through Southeast Asia learn much from its African predecessor, the Cape to Cairo railroad championed by nineteenth century businessman Cecil Rhodes? Policymakers in Beijing won’t welcome the comparisons to the ...

Not quite to plan

Covid-19 chaos puts the brakes on BRI projects
Jul 10, 2020 (WiC 503)

Lending for infrastructure projects in China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) is so opaque that there is no real consensus on the total loans outstanding. Best guesses start at $200 billion and often head sharply upwards. What’s clearer is ...

Foreign affairs

Study buddy programme proves controversial
Jul 26, 2019 (WiC 461)

In the Practical Chinese Reader – a textbook commonly used to teach Chinese – there are three main characters: Gubo, Palanka and Ding Yun. Gubo and Palanka are international students said to have arrived in Beijing in the 1970s. ...

Getting back on track

Xi Jinping presses reboot button at the Belt and Road Forum
May 3, 2019 (WiC 450)

Tone down the rhetoric, improve the oversight and show more of the results. For months that’s been the advice on offer to Belt and Road policymakers and there were signs that the message was getting through as dozens of state leaders joined ...

All roads lead to Rome

Xi Jinping hopes that his trip to Italy will give the BRI a boost
Mar 22, 2019 (WiC 445)

The sentiment surrounding China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) has soured sharply over the last 18 months with headlines about projects that haven’t materialised, loans that don’t look sustainable and recipient nations that want to ...

Malaysian malaise

More negative headlines for China’s BRI
Jan 18, 2019 (WiC 437)

“Light is good from whatever lamp it shines,” is the advice of a Chinese proverb. But a small group behind Beijing’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) shrank from the spotlight when the Wall Street Journal alleged improper conduct in China’s ...

Terror in Karachi

The pressure builds on Pakistan corridor plan
Nov 30, 2018 (WiC 434)

On the morning of Friday November 23, three armed men attacked the Chinese consulate in Karachi in Pakistan. They were members of the Baloch Liberation Army, a militant group which wants greater autonomy for Balochistan – a large, resource-rich ...

Battle of the benefactors

Washington is planning a counter-offensive to Belt and Road lending
Nov 2, 2018 (WiC 430)

Earlier this autumn, senior officials from the Overseas Private Investment Corp (OPIC) went elephant hunting in Sri Lanka. But the executives from the United States’ development finance agency weren’t trying to relive a nineteenth century ...

The host with the most

Mahathir makes trip to China but Belt and Road train row rumbles on
Aug 24, 2018 (WiC 421)

When Mahathir Mohamad visited China for the first time in 1985 – making stops in Beijing and Hangzhou – the Malaysian prime minster brought a 200-strong delegation with him looking to sell goods and services, and invest. It was not an ...

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