Leaders | Distressing debt

How China should handle its bad loans to poor countries

Time to work with Western creditors

A container ship is pictured docked at the Colombo South Harbor during its opening ceremony in Colombo August 5, 2013. Sri Lanka opened on Monday the first phase of a $500 million container terminal, part of a Chinese-funded expansion of the country's main port which is intended to double its capacity by 2020 and make shipping a key driver of economic growth. REUTERS/Stringer (SRI LANKA - Tags: BUSINESS POLITICS MARITIME) - GM1E9851I4N01

How big is China’s Belt and Road Initiative? It is hard to pin down a number. The programme has been running for nearly a decade, during which time China has financed hundreds of infrastructure projects in dozens of countries. These include railways in Africa, ports in Asia and roads in Latin America. President Xi Jinping has called it the “project of the century”. The lofty rhetoric and opaque numbers fuelled fears that China was trying to reshape the world, by putting itself at the centre.

This article appeared in the Leaders section of the print edition under the headline “Distressing debt”

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