mandag 31. desember 2018

Are the wheels coming off China's Belt and Road megaproject?


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.