Year four of China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) is now in the books. The Belt and Road is a bunch of “junk”As the tendrils of the Belt and Road continued wrapping around Eurasia throughout 2017, the quality of many of Beijing’s investments was called into question. Bloomberg reported at the end of October that 60% of China’s Belt and Road (BRI) partners have sovereign debt ratings of “junk” or have withdrawn from such ratings due to a fear of poor showings. Horgos / Khorgos is boomingThat said, 2017 was predictably a huge year for Belt and Road infrastructure development projects. China’s worldwide port shopping spree continuedThroughout 2017, China and Sri Lanka’s Hambantota debacle continued, reaching an apex in July when China Merchants Port Holdings took a 70% share of the Hambantota deep sea port.

Source: Forbes December 21, 2017 03:22 UTC