When President Xi Jinping first assembled world leaders to map out his vision for expanding Chinese soft power via a web of infrastructure investment in 2017, he called the Belt and Road the “project of the century.”
As the Chinese statesman opens the third Belt and Road Forum this week, the future of his brainchild looks uncertain. While the project has drawn US$1 trillion ($1.37 trillion) in its first decade, according to estimates from think tank Green Finance & Development Center, the momentum has tapered off in recent years.
