Sino-Shour, a state-run insurer, now refuses to allow loans to countries that are already heavily indebted to China. Construction firms have to take a stake in the projects that they work on which gives them skin in the game. According to Boston University, projects are getting physically smaller as in their square footage is contracting. The map of overseas lending is being redrawn and borrowers are fundamentally changing.
The Belt and Road initiative to encircle much of the world with Chinese-funded, Chinese-built infrastructure is growing leaner and more penny-wise. But its ambitions are undimmed. Energy-market turmoil has given a boost to the green transition—a boost that has come with hard truths about the shift’s costs. And a television show about Jesus Christ becomes an unlikely hit.
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