The BRI forum in Beijing ends today and it is now widely acknowledged that the next 10 years will not be like the last. Three things have happened that make it improbable that China will continue the same aggressive strategy of the last 10 years. The debt piled up on the back of the initiative has been huge. Geopolitical tensions have emerged around international trade and globalisation. Also, the Chinese economy is weaker than it was before the pandemic. The initiative, focused on Africa, Asia, and Latin America has been one of China and the world’s most comprehensive trade and foreign policy, allowing Chinese companies to build transportation, energy and other infrastructures funded by Chinese development bank loans. 152 countries signed up, with Italy the only European country to do so. 3,000 projects at different stages of completion and nearly US $1 trillion investment.
