The world owes China's eight biggest state-owned banks at least 1.6 trillion by 2019, according to estimates. Because the kind of stuff that China lends for is built by Chinese firms, the money almost never leaves the country. State-run banks were flushed with dollars from rocketing exports and the financial crisis. But there was one big problem: construction companies had absolutely no skin in the game.
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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