China’s President Xi Jinping will host 28 heads of state this weekend for a summit to promote his signature Belt and Road Initiative, an ambitious programme of economic diplomacy that analysts have compared with the Marshall Plan.
Mr Xi’s plan for a “Silk Road Economic Belt” and a “21st-century Maritime Silk Road”, first proposed in 2013, calls for building infrastructure links to bind China more closely with central and Southeast Asia, the Middle East, Europe and Africa. In some versions of the plan, Latin America is also included.
Despite the hype surrounding the BRI — it has already been the subject of numerous banking conferences and think-tank panels — a range of indicators suggests that Chinese investment in the initiative has slowed.