The sharp drop in Chinese overseas development finance lending documented by Boston University’s Center for Global Policy Development among others has prompted critics of Beijing’s Belt and Initiative in the United States and Europe to suggest that the massive global trade agenda is in trouble.
Not true, claims Professor Hu Biliang, dean of the Belt and Road School, Beijing Normal University, in a column in today’s China Daily newspaper. He argues the BRI is still going strong, despite recent difficulties brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic.