China touts its Belt and Road infrastructure lending as an alternative for international development

BEIJING (AP) — China is touting its 10-year-old Belt and Road Initiative as an alternative model for economic development, releasing a government report that praises the program while glossing over criticism that it has saddled poor countries with too much debt.

The program championed by Chinese leader Xi Jinping has financed construction of ports, power plants, railroads and other projects around the world.

“Over the past 10 years, the fruitful results of building the Belt and Road together and the growing circle of friends have fully proved that the Belt and Road does not engage in a closed and narrow circle, transcends the old mindset of geopolitical games and creates a new paradigm of international cooperation,” Li Kexin, the Foreign Ministry's director for international economics affairs, told reporters in Beijing.

Since it was launched, the Belt and Road Initiative, or BRI, has backed projects carried out mostly by Chinese construction companies, financed by loans from Chinese development banks.