Gunners Shot

The Belt and Road Initiative was all over the news a couple of years back. It seemed to be the only game in town. It was touted to be the instrument that will propel China to superpower status. However as time passed, the concept got into problems in the execution phase. The term debt trap is now almost  synonymous with the BRI. In any case the principle of debt trapping came to light through  BRI deals going sour. Naturally, the Chinese have caught flak due to their usurious financial deals. Amidst all this the corona struck and paralysed progress on BRI projects for a variety of reasons. Today, BRI hardly finds mention in a newspaper in any significant manner. Most of the projects are languishing despite all the propaganda of its success by China.  Some are cancelled, many are scaled down and many countries want to renegotiate terms with China. In this episode, Aadi and I discuss various aspects pertaining to the BRI.