Breitbart:
China’s massive Belt and Road infrastructure initiative (BRI) appears to be running low on both government and private funds, according to a study published on Wednesday by the American Enterprise Institute.
The key finding of the AEI study is that investment in Belt and Road projects by private sector firms is lagging far behind the pace of construction. The share of private investment fell by 12 percent in the first half of 2018, even as a growing list of Belt and Road projects reached into 117 countries. Overall, the Chinese initiative now boasts $256 billion worth of construction but only $148 billion in investment.
Compounding the instability of Belt and Road – also known as One Belt, One Road (OBOR) – financing is the stress placed on China’s economy by its trade war with the United States. The conflict has gone more poorly for Beijing than anticipated, leaving it with less money to spend on Belt and Road at a crucial moment when developing countries are rethinking their commitment to the project and private investors are backing away.
Another interesting quirk AEI’s research uncovered is that China’s hybrid public-private mega-corporations are not quite the obedient instruments of aggressive central policy Beijing might have hoped for. Many Belt and Road projects are meant to expand China’s political influence across the hemisphere, but they are not terribly profitable.
The prospect of making Third World countries dependent on Chinese engineers to maintain their expensive new trains and power stations is tremendously appealing to the Communist Party but not for the Chinese engineers actually charged with doing the work, or the companies that pay their salaries. Some of the countries where China is pushing huge Belt and Road projects with lousy profit margins offer few business opportunities that would entice CEOs to swallow their losses on infrastructure construction.
Also unappealing for Chinese executives is the prospect of getting charged with “corruption” and “disappearing” into the prison system when the Politburo is displeased with their decisions. The fate of one such executive demonstrated what AEI drily described as “a risk-reward trade-off that most private firms would flee.”
The AEI study quarrels with American diplomats who describe Belt and Road as a “debt trap for developing countries,” arguing that while BRI seems to have worked out that way in a few high-profile instances, the Chinese government generally is not interested in tricking Third World countries into taking out loans they cannot afford and gobbling up their territory when they come up short on their loan payments.
“The PRC gains influence in BRI countries by often being the only country willing to supply capital and basic construction services such as power plants and highways. Losing money adds little in terms of influence,” AEI explained.
Venezuela was offered as an example, noting that China aspired to become the deteriorating socialist tyranny’s “principal partner” in a mutually profitable relationship as other countries turned away in disgust, but instead found itself pouring money into the bottomless pit of the Venezuelan national oil company. “If there’s a debt trap, China is also caught in it,” AEI noted. more here
Let’s help them build the roads to better move their military so they can invade their neighbors!
Oops. I meant to say “promote trade”.
OBOR was never designed for private investment. China business plan is to dole out goodies in terms of infrastructure, utilizing Chinese slave worker/wages.
Each country leverages OBOR via taxpayers and natural resources in the respective countries, which can never be repaid. China owns them. Kinda like the pols allowed them to do to US.
The Chinese interest is exploiting the countries mineral and and energy resources. They’ll have the targeted countries denuded of all natural resources in short order much like a horde of army ants. What will be left behind is crushing debt and misery.
@Engelburka – you’re exactly right. China’s using the Mafia “bust out” trick. They loan money/provide infrastructure at a rate that can’t be repaid and then take ownership of the projects and countries when they default.