China Briefing | Mahathir’s pushback against Chinese deals shows belt and road plan needs review
Xi Jinping’s signature strategy has shown significant progress, but Malaysia’s decision to shelve two China-financed mega projects is the latest sign improvements are required
In October that year, while visiting Indonesia, he followed up by suggesting a “21st Century Maritime Silk Road”, tracing the old trading routes that took Chinese merchants to Southeast Asia, Arabian countries and all the way to eastern Africa.
The overseas media have invariably described the initiative as the Chinese version of the Marshall Plan, a United States government initiative to rebuild Europe after the second world war. However, Chinese officials have shied away from endorsing the comparison, because the US plan had the strong geopolitical intent of supporting its European allies and isolating what was then the Soviet Union.
Still, many have seen Xi’s signature campaign as China’s boldest attempt yet to project the country’s political, economic and cultural influences at a time of profound changes across the world, particularly in the US and Europe.
From last month, state media have ramped up propaganda to mark the fifth anniversary of the grand plan and catalogue achievements ranging from China-built railways in Ethiopia to the China-owned Greek port of Piraeus.
