From Agence France Presse

Beijing, China – China on Thursday slammed what it called the “smearing” of its Belt and Road infrastructure project after Italy said it would withdraw four years after it became the only G7 nation to sign up.

An Italian government source confirmed to AFP on Wednesday that Rome had pulled out of the initiative. Proponents of the BRI praise it for bringing resources and economic growth to the Global South.

But critics have long pointed to opaque pricing for projects built by Chinese companies, with countries including Malaysia and Myanmar renegotiating deals to bring down costs.

17 hours ago, reader said:

From Agence France Presse

Beijing, China – China on Thursday slammed what it called the “smearing” of its Belt and Road infrastructure project after Italy said it would withdraw four years after it became the only G7 nation to sign up.

An Italian government source confirmed to AFP on Wednesday that Rome had pulled out of the initiative. Proponents of the BRI praise it for bringing resources and economic growth to the Global South.

But critics have long pointed to opaque pricing for projects built by Chinese companies, with countries including Malaysia and Myanmar renegotiating deals to bring down costs.

China is now getting its come uppance for Xi's attempt to take pver much of the world. It's not just its opaque pricing and high interest rates for the loans it dishes out. Many countries cannot repay those loans. Sri Lanka is going through its worst financial crisis for 7 decades. There have been street demonstrations, runs on banks and rollng electrical blackouts. China lent it US$7 billion to construct a new port seen as a key to east/west trade. It has been negotiating a bailout loan from the IMF for US$2.9 billion. In the meantime it has borrowed a further US$4 billion from the Import-Export Bank of China to help repay other loans - many from China!

In addition to the Columbo container port, Sir Lanka's port of Hambantota became key to China's Belt & Road initiative. Despite its necessity being questioned, China poured vast loans into the country to have it fully developed. The intention was to make a small fishing village into a major shipping hub. The debts incurred to China could not be repaid. So Sri Lanka gave China a controlling equity in the port and a 99-year lease on its operations. Infrastructure projects are a key element of the Belt & Road initiative. And the fear is that China is happy to provide mega-loans in the reasonably certain knowledge it will soon be in a position to control these projects.

https://asia.nikkei.com/Spotlight/Sri-Lanka-crisis/Sri-Lanka-says-deal-with-Chinese-bank-covers-4.2bn-in-debt