China Expanding Worldwide Infrastructure Development Program
According to The New York Times, the Chinese government substantially expanded its “Belt and Road” infrastructure initiative last year, and is planning to do so even more this year.
Chinese companies signed contracts for projects around the world worth nearly $128 billion in the first 11 months of 2019, a 41 percent increase over the same period in 2018. “The contracts are mostly for construction and equipment by big Chinese companies using Chinese skilled labor and loans from Chinese banks,” The Times said.
The same week that the two nations inked a phase one trade deal, The Times also warned, “The return of Belt and Road is likely to raise tensions with the United States, which worries that China is building a globe-spanning bloc of nations that will mostly buy Chinese goods and tilt toward China’s authoritarian political model.”