China’s Global Power Projection Hit With 'Strategic Overdraft'

Despite the tough challenges facing the Chinese economy, President and “core leader” Xi Jinping (習近平) is going ahead with ambitious plans to project Chinese power worldwide including the landmark One Belt One Road (OBOR) initiative. Xi is expected to announce a new series of projects linking China with Asia, Central and Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Africa at an OBOR international forum scheduled for mid-May Beijing. Xi, who is personally supervising the scheme in via the Central Leading Group on OBOR Construction Work, apparently hopes to boost China’s agenda-setting capacity in global economic discourse. Xi and his colleagues have taken advantage of U.S. President Donald Trump’s nationalist and anti-globalization stance to emphasize Beijing’s eagerness to provide leadership in combatting protectionism and promoting free trade. Read more