China is educating engineers around the world
Its technical schools are less controversial than its Confucius Institutes
Chinese officials often talk of the Belt and Road Initiative, a global infrastructure building spree, in hyperbolic terms. On October 17th and 18th Xi Jinping, China’s leader, hosted a big summit in Beijing to celebrate the tenth anniversary of what the government likes to call the “project of the century”. Lately this hype has masked an awkward reality. Since 2020 China has scaled back the scheme as governments have found it harder to repay Chinese infrastructure loans.
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This article appeared in the China section of the print edition under the headline “Training days”
From the October 21st 2023 edition
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