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Are the wheels coming off China's Belt and Road megaproject?
Source: CNN
Are the wheels coming off China's Belt and Road megaproject?
Analysis by James Griffiths, CNN
Updated 1827 GMT (0227 HKT) December 31, 2018
Hong Kong (CNN) — Kenya is the latest country where China is frantically defusing a public relations storm over President Xi Jinping's signature Belt and Road megaproject.
In a statement Friday, China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs dismissed as "not true" numerous reports that a key port in Mombasa was at risk of being seized by Beijing over unpaid debts.
Speaking to journalists last week, Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta also pushed back, dismissing as "pure propaganda" reports based on a leaked letter from the country's Auditor General warning that assets belonging to the Kenya Port Authority -- including Mombasa's massive Kilindini Harbor, the largest port in East Africa -- were listed as collateral for a multi-billion-dollar loan to fund a railway project.
"The Chinese government themselves say this (it) is nonsense," Kenyatta said, while the AG's office denied publishing any such letter, copies of which circulated widely online.
Despite Beijing and Nairobi's vehement denials, concerns over the loans speak to a growing fear in many developing countries that their governments, in rushing to cash in on China's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), have left themselves overextended, with Chinese state-owned companies ready to snap up ports, railways and other key infrastructure across the globe should debtors default.
-snip-
Analysis by James Griffiths, CNN
Updated 1827 GMT (0227 HKT) December 31, 2018
Hong Kong (CNN) — Kenya is the latest country where China is frantically defusing a public relations storm over President Xi Jinping's signature Belt and Road megaproject.
In a statement Friday, China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs dismissed as "not true" numerous reports that a key port in Mombasa was at risk of being seized by Beijing over unpaid debts.
Speaking to journalists last week, Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta also pushed back, dismissing as "pure propaganda" reports based on a leaked letter from the country's Auditor General warning that assets belonging to the Kenya Port Authority -- including Mombasa's massive Kilindini Harbor, the largest port in East Africa -- were listed as collateral for a multi-billion-dollar loan to fund a railway project.
"The Chinese government themselves say this (it) is nonsense," Kenyatta said, while the AG's office denied publishing any such letter, copies of which circulated widely online.
Despite Beijing and Nairobi's vehement denials, concerns over the loans speak to a growing fear in many developing countries that their governments, in rushing to cash in on China's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), have left themselves overextended, with Chinese state-owned companies ready to snap up ports, railways and other key infrastructure across the globe should debtors default.
-snip-
Read more: https://edition.cnn.com/2018/12/31/asia/china-kenya-belt-road-bri-intl/index.html