The value of Chinese companies’ new investment and construction contracts in countries that are part of President Xi Jinping’s global Belt and Road Initiative has hit a record high this year, a new study has found.
The expansion in overseas markets and China’s increased engagement with countries under its flagship BRI infrastructure programme contrast starkly with the approach of the US, where President Donald Trump is imposing bruising tariffs on trading partners around the world.
Chinese construction contracts and investments in BRI members totalled $124bn over 176 deals in the first six months of the year, greater than the total of $122bn for the whole of 2024, according to a study by Australia’s Griffith University and the Green Finance & Development Center in Beijing.