BEIJING -- The Belt and Road Forum concluded on Wednesday has provided a glimpse of China's future global engagement, likely focusing on smaller projects in developing economies of the so-called Global South, while other countries distance themselves amid high geopolitical tensions.
The forum celebrated 10 years of the initiative, launched in 2013 and inspired by ancient trade routes. Since its inception, China's infrastructure-centered investment blitz has spanned over 150 countries, stretching from Asia to Africa and on to South America. It has driven the "flow of goods, capital, technologies and human resources," President Xi Jinping said in his address to the event.
