Analysts have credited the development programme with directing much needed funding to poor countries but say that it has come at a cost
China has doubled down on its under-fire Belt and Road Initiative, arguing its controversial investment programme is a positive model for international economic development, the Associated Press reported.
A new government report praises the initiative, which has seen the construction of ports, power plants, railroads and other projects around the world, while glossing over criticism that it has saddled poor countries with too much debt, the AP report went on.
Li Kexin, the Foreign Ministry’s director for international economics affairs, told reporters in Beijing that Belt and Road had transcended the “old mindset of geopolitical games” and had created a “new paradigm of international cooperation”.
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