Are Chinas pledges to green its Belt and Road Initiative the real deal? [Video]

September 20, 2022 — Editor’s note: This story was co-published with The Guardian.

In July 2019, China rolled out the carpet for Bangladeshi prime minister Sheikh Hasina. Flown to Beijing by the Chinese government, she was greeted with an honor guard and banquet and received by both President Xi Jinping and Prime Minister Li Keqiang. Three days later, she returned to her capital, Dhaka, with nine agreements worth billions of dollars to build power plants and provide other development assistance.

Hasina’s short visit benefited both countries. Big new infrastructure projects would help lift living standards in Bangladesh, but also enable China to strengthen its influence on its fast-growing neighbor of more than 160 million people.

Those loans and agreements made up one very small part of China’s Belt and Road initiative (BRI) — the world’s largest infrastructure program since the U.S. Marshall Plan helped rebuild Europe after World War II. Launched as a President Xi flagship project in 2013, it involves China flooding …