Thursday, April 9, 2020

COVID-19's Impact on China's Belt and Road Initiative

The Diplomat published on 7 April 2020 an analysis titled "The Belt and Road after COVID-19" by Plamen Tonchev, head of the Asia unit at the Institute of International Economic Relations in Athens.

COVID-19 has exposed the need for China to focus on domestic development and Beijing will have to reconcile two competing priorities: avoiding the middle income trap, while at the same time posturing as a super power. The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) may fall short of cash and become a hard sell at home. China has not yet expressed a clear-cut definition of the BRI, which remains a loose set of infrastructure projects and bilateral deals. COVID-19 has engendered skepticism about the prudence of leaning too heavily on the BRI and China.