Via The Diplomat, a look at how the BRI is becoming less and less prominent in Chinese leaders’ speeches as the Global Development Initiative takes over: Nearly a decade after its launch, the Belt and Road Initiative – what was once nicknamed the “project of the century” – is slowly vanishing from Chinese leaders’ speeches. […]
Read more »Courtesy of The Financial Times, commentary on Russia’s inroads into Africa: That China has made huge diplomatic, commercial and strategic inroads in Africa is news to no one. That Russia has done so barely without spending a rouble is less known. Yet over the past decade, and at an accelerating pace, Moscow has built a […]
Read more »Via Ariana News, a report that Afghanistan hopes to join the CPEC: Afghan Minister of Commerce and Industry has said that Afghanistan should be included in the multibillion-dollar China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) infrastructure project. “In talks we had with China, it was mentioned that we should partner with China in the Belt and Road Initiative and […]
Read more »Via Diplomatic Courier, a review of a book that explores how China found itself with a remarkably expansive, though unintended, empire in Central Asia: Over the course of the summer, China found itself headed for a foreign debt crisis. Many of its loans, made under the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI)—Beijing’s globe-spanning infrastructure and influence […]
Read more »Courtesy of The Washington Post, a report on the impact that a massive hike in cell service fees has had upon Lebanon’s poor: Shopping for grapes at Beirut’s wholesale market to resell from her produce cart, an exhausted Rawaa Ghosn described how another layer of her increasingly tenuous life was peeled away after she had […]
Read more »Via The Diplomat, an article on Southeast Asia’s EV ambitions: As countries around the world strive to reach their climate targets, many are turning to electric vehicles (EVs) as a way of reducing carbon emissions. Global efforts to diversify supply chains combined with the drive to adopt green technology have created an opportunity for EV […]
Read more »