A speaker at the U.S. Department of Agriculture‘s 2022 Outlook Forum, which occurred last month, revealed some interesting geopolitical tension around infrastructure. According to Drovers, Elizabeth C. Economy, senior advisor for China in the U.S. Department of Commerce, says that participants are souring on China’s Belt and Road Initiative:
“Many countries have infrastructure needs that other lenders or donors couldn’t or wouldn’t meet that China fulfilled,” Economy says. “A lot of these Belt and Road projects are done for geostrategic reasons. Even the Chinese government is concerned about the number of countries now coming back to them saying, ‘Hey, we’d like to renegotiate the terms of this agreement.’”
China’s Belt and Road infrastructure spending peaked in 2016, Drovers’ Jenna Hoffmann reports, due to a “a complete digital refocus for China in coming years.”