The BRI is a far-reaching plan for transnational infrastructure development, linking five continents through land and sea corridors and industrial clusters. Launched in 2013, it was initially planned to revive ancient Silk Road trade routes between Eurasia and China, but the scope of the BRI has since extended to cover 138 countries, including 38 in sub-Saharan Africa and 18 in Latin America and the Caribbean. Prior to the pandemic, the Asian Development Bank estimated that the infrastructure financing needs of emerging Asia alone would amount to $26trn through 2030. It is thus unsurprising that many low- and middle-income countries came to see the BRI as a vehicle for catalysing much-needed investment in capital projects. By early January 2020, 2951 BRI-linked projects valued at $3.87trn were planned or underway across the world. Although the criteria for what actually constitutes a BRI project are not formally defined, linking a project to […]