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China’s Risky “Build It and They Will Come” Development Strategy

by Eric Olander

There’s widespread speculation that Chinese financial support for its hugely ambitious Belt and Road Initiative may be waning due to the current economic crisis and the desire among senior Chinese policymakers to focus more attention on the domestic front.

That may be true, but it wasn’t evident last week when Foreign Minister Wang Yi toured Africa and announced the addition of the BRI’s two newest members, the DR Congo and Botswana. Now, African countries account for more than a third of the 125 BRI signatories around the world.

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