China’s Belt and Road initiative raising eyebrows, but going still

Five years after its launch, China’s Belt and Road Initiative is still “popular” in target countries despite issues that have infected an estimated 14% of the projects in the 88 mostly developing countries that are being invested in, Raffaello Pantucci writes in a guest post for the Financial Times. Pantucci points out that the most significant issues were seen in Pakistan, Malaysia and Myanmar, all due to local government pushing to renegotiate project terms. The article doesn’t mention Egypt, but it reminds us that last month the Suez Canal Authority rejected an offer from a state-owned Chinese company for a reason that remains unclear.