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Opinion

What the West gets wrong about China's Belt and Road Initiative

Obsession with lending levels misses BRI's long-term outlook

| China
Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping, pictured in Astana in September 2013: he addressed more than just infrastructure development.   © Reuters

Dr. Lauren A. Johnston is research associate, China Institute, SOAS, University of London. She is founder and managing director of New South Economics.

In the years following Sierra Leone's 10-year civil war which ended in 2002, while working as an economist in the Ministry of Development and Economic Planning, I was asked to help make sense of the myriad international aid spending on reconstruction.

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