Chinese President Xi Jinping's much-touted Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) has come under criticism at the annual political sessions of the country, a rare dissent in China's one party political system, according to a media report Wednesday.
The annual sessions of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) and the National People's Conference (NPC) began on March 3 and due to end on March 15.
The CPPCC consisting of over 2,000 delegates is a national advisory body with nominated representatives from various walks of life. the NPC which also has over 2,000 legislators is often regarded as rubber stamp parliament for its routine endorsement of laws and policies formulated by the ruling Communist Party of China (CPC).
While dissent and disagreements are a rarity in China, murmurs of criticism that too against Xi's BRI, which reportedly carries over trillion USD investment budget, surfaced during the discussions at the two sessions, Hong Kong based South China Morning Post reported on Wednesday.
While the two sessions are being held in the backdrop of increasing apprehensions over the adverse impact of the ongoing trade war with the US and continued slowdown of the China's economy, a former Chinese diplomat Ye Dabo has questioned whether it was accurate for Premier Li Keqiang to say in his government work report that the BRI had made "important progress" last year.
Li presented the work report to the NPC on March 5 for adoption.
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"I think this evaluation may be a bit excessive," Ye said at the panel discussion which was open to foreign journalists.
"We have achieved some results and some fast developments, but it also has problems," Ye was quoted by the Post report as saying.
The BRI, a signature strategy of Xi that aims to expand China's economic influence throughout Asia and beyond, has been enshrined in the Constitution of the Communist Party since 2017.
But it suffered some setbacks in 2018. The US is openly warning other countries to be cautious about involvement their involvement in the project. Some governments from Kuala Lumpur to Islamabad are scaling back their commitment because of debt concerns, the Post report said.
The main criticism stems from China doling out huge loans spanning to billions of US dollars to small countries for infrastructure development over and beyond their capacity to pay back.
India too cautioned specially the neighbouring countries about debt traps.
Apprehensions over the huge loans grew after China acquired Sri Lanka's Hambantota port on a 99-year lease as a debt swap.
India has protested to China over the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), which is a part of the BRI, as it traversed through Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.
Ye said at the panel discussion that China's cooperation with countries through Belt and Road Initiative had "not been as smooth [as they like to see]."