Belt and Road Initiative

Launched by Chinese President Xi Jinping in 2013, the Belt and Road Initiative is a massive infrastructure investment program connecting China to Europe, Africa, and Latin America through ports, railways, pipelines, and other projects. The initiative has financed hundreds of billions of dollars of infrastructure in dozens of countries. Critics see it as a Chinese strategy for geopolitical influence and a debt trap for participating countries; supporters see it as filling a real infrastructure need in the developing world.