Is China’s Belt and Road Initiative a bold infrastructure vision, or a slush fund? If proven, that would offer the clearest link yet between the 1MDB scandal and Belt and Road, which is still seen by many as a more effective rival to multilateral investors such as the currently leaderless World Bank and Asian Development Bank. Despite Xi’s close association with it, the initiative isn’t ultimately a connected master plan for Chinese global ascendancy. Oil and gas pipelines linking a planned $9.6 billion port in Myanmar to China’s Yunnan province are barely being used after five years in operation. The more concerning thought isn’t that Belt and Road is a vast conspiracy, but that it’s a vast mess.

Source: Economic Times January 09, 2019 07:52 UTC