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New Silk Road (from 7)
on Foreign Relations says the project rep-
resents “an unsettling extension of China’s
rising power, and as the costs of many of
the proposed projects have skyrocketed,
opposition has grown in some participant
countries.”
Trojan Horse
Chatzky says the U.S. shares the concern
of some Asians that the BRI “could be a
trojan horse for China-led regional devel-
opment, military expansion and Beijing-
controlled institutions.”
The expense, complexity and breadth of the BRI will dwarf
China’s most famous infrastructure, The Great Wall.
Moscow’s onboard
Chatzky notes in his backgrounder that
Russia has become one of the BRI’s most
enthusiastic partners, although it fi rst re-
sponded to Xi’s plan “with reticence.”
Moscow, at fi rst, he said, feared Beijing’s
plans “would outshine Moscow’s vision for
a Eurasian Economic Union and impinge on
its traditional sphere of infl uence.”
But, adds Chatzky, that’s all changed as
Russia’s relationship with the West has de-
teriorated. Now Putin has pledged to link
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