China Reins In Its Infrastructure Strategy But Not Its Global Ambition

WSJ What’s News

The Wall Street Journal

News, Daily News

4.1 • 4.2K Ratings

🗓️ 2 March 2025

⏱️ 18 minutes

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Summary

The early years of the Belt and Road Initiative left China with tens of billions of dollars in soured loans, making it a costly way of building global influence. Now Beijing is reworking its flagship infrastructure lending program to shield itself from financial risk and focus on projects that support its evolving ambitions, including securing critical supply chains for things like green-tech minerals and positioning itself as a leader that developing nations can unite behind. In the second episode of our three-part series, “Building Influence,” AidData’s Bradley Parks, SOAS University of London’s Steve Tsang and the WSJ’s Chun Han Wong discuss Belt and Road 2.0 and how even though China is reducing its spending, it is no less ambitious when it comes to pursuing Xi Jinping’s strategic goals. Kate Bullivant hosts. Further reading: China’s Belt and Road Plan Is Down, Not Out China Reins In Its Belt and Road Program, $1 Trillion Later China Is Starting to Act Like a Global Power Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	If you were sitting in Beijing right now and you were looking at a global dashboard of China's overseas infrastructure project portfolio, you would see a lot of flashing red lights.
0:13.3	That is Bradley Parks, the executive director of A-Data, the Development Research Lab at William & Mary's Global Research Institute that
0:22.0	tracks how much China spends on its Belt and Road infrastructure program. In the early
0:27.7	years of Belt and Road, China went on a spending spree in pursuit of its economic and
0:32.6	strategic goals, financing bold engineering projects from mines and highways to ports and pipelines, in addition to growing its influence around the globe.
0:43.2	But as the journal's chief China correspondent Lingling Wei pointed out at the end of the first episode in this special What's News Sunday series,
0:51.1	those loans that China handed out to developing countries around the world weren't
0:55.1	free money. Eventually, the debt would have to be repaid. And when it started coming due,
1:01.7	signs of strain began to show. I'm Luke Vargas for the Wall Street Journal. And in today's
1:07.3	episode, my colleague Kate Bullivant will be taking a look at how Beijing is trying
1:12.0	to dig itself out from the financial hole it created in the Belt and shield itself from
1:18.4	risks going forward, all while keeping the wheels turning on its goal of building up its influence
1:24.1	around the globe. Here's Kate.
1:27.2	When China started Belt and Road back in 2013, its economy was growing fast, expanding by nearly
1:34.4	8% that year. That made it easy for Beijing to lavish investments on a wide range of large
1:40.9	infrastructure projects. Since then, China's faced a lot of challenges.
1:45.7	The COVID-19 pandemic, the meltdown of its property sector, mounting local government debt,
1:52.0	even public frustration about Beijing's decision to channel investments abroad when there
1:57.2	were still needs at home. As we heard last week, China's Belt and Road investments started to drop off in 2018.
2:05.3	And even today, its overseas lending remains a lot lower than its peak,
2:10.0	though it is still around $80 billion a year.
2:13.6	Brad Parks, from A-Data, says China is still nursing a hangover from the excesses of the
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