Beijing will inject over $100 billion of new funding into its Belt and Road initiative, President Xi Jinping said Wednesday at a summit marking the vast infrastructure project's tenth anniversary.
The Belt and Road is a central pillar of Xi's bid to expand China's clout overseas, with Beijing saying it has now inked over two trillion dollars in contracts around the world.
Proponents hail it for bringing resources and economic growth to the Global South. But the initiative has also been slammed for saddling poor countries with enormous debt. Xi announced on Wednesday that key Belt and Road lenders the China Development Bank and the Export-Import Bank will now offer an additional $100 billion in loans.
Both will set up financing opportunities of 350 billion yuan ($47.9 billion) for BRI projects, he said. An additional 80 billion yuan will be injected into the project's official lending institution, the Silk Road fund, Xi said.
This week's forum, attended by representatives of 130 countries, is the third major summit of its kind to be hosted by Beijing since the Belt and Road's launch in 2013.
Critics have long pointed to opaque pricing for BRI projects built by Chinese companies, with countries including Malaysia and Myanmar renegotiating deals to bring down costs.
Beijing has been forced to hand out billions of dollars in bailout loans to BRI countries in recent years to allow the countries to extend their loans and remain solvent, according to a joint report this year by the World Bank and other institutions.
And China said this month that BRI participants owe more than $300 billion to the Export-Import Bank of China. The initiative has also drawn scrutiny for its massive carbon footprint and the environmental degradation caused by massive infrastructure projects.
The development of megaports, pipelines, railways and highways could render the Paris climate goals unreachable, researchers from China, the United States and the United Kingdom warned in 2019.
Similarly, Chinese leader Xi Jinping told Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday that "political mutual trust" between their countries was "continuously deepening", Beijing's state media reported.
He also called for joint efforts by China and Russia to "safeguard international fairness" and "justice", state news agency Xinhua said, hailing the "close and effective strategic coordination" between their two countries.
"Bilateral trade volume has reached a historical high, which is progressing toward the goal of 200 billion US dollars set by the two sides," Xi added.
The Chinese leader also noted that he had met with Putin "42 times in the past 10 years and (had) developed a good working relationship and a deep friendship".
Beijing this week hosts representatives of 130 countries for a forum on the Belt and Road Initiative, Xi's vast trade and infrastructure project.
At the top of the guest list is Putin, who is on his first trip to a major global power since Moscow's invasion of Ukraine threw his regime into international isolation. China is Russia's largest trading partner, with exchange between the nations reaching a record $190 billion last year, Beijing customs data shows.
Beijing has drawn criticism from Western countries for its stance on the Ukraine war, on which China insists it is neutral even as it refuses to criticise Moscow's invasion. In Beijing, Putin is on a mission to strengthen the already strong bond with his communist neighbour, though experts say Moscow is increasingly the junior partner in the relationship. The war raging between Israel and Palestinian militant organisation Hamas also looms large over the forum.
