Belt and Road Initiative: 'China's social governance of the world'

For the Chinese, the landmark project is more than just a giant infrastructure project

China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), articulated by President Xi Jinping in 2013, is recognised as the largest infrastructure and investment project in global history. Spanning 68 countries, including 65 per cent of the world’s population and 40 per cent of global GDP, it is popularly considered an ambitious blueprint for Chinese global hegemony. The BRI’s lumpy progress, however, has also provoked predictions of its imminent demise. Talk to senior members of the Chinese establishment and they’re equivocal about the first point and flatly contradict the second.
 
As of November 2019, Hu Biliang, dean of the Belt and Road