Belt and Road: China showcases initiative to world leaders and addresses worries

The Chinese government is set to present its Belt and Road trade initiative to world leaders at a gathering in Beijing starting on Thursday.

Beijing will have to try and work around growing concerns and criticism of the $1trn infrastructure project aimed at expanding global trade links.

Some oppose the project, seeing it as a push for geopolitical influence on the part of China and because, while it had helped to fund trains roads and ports in many countries, the initiatives had also left some nations burdened with high debts, prompting criticism that the initiative was in fact a “debt trap” for host countries.

At the first day of the forum in Beijing, which will host 37 world leaders and dozens of local officials, Chinese Finance Minister Liu Kun said his country wants the Belt and Road initiative to be sustainable and to avoid debt-related risks.

Italy recently became the first developed economy to sign up to China's Belt and Road programme, raising concerns among some of its European allies, who claimed that China was attempting to break the European Union.

The environment was also an issue, as Chinese companies moved to build coal power projects around the world, at one point accounting for as much as 42% of all its overseas investment in 2018, according to the China Global Energy Finance database.