China’S string of pearls in peril
BY: Navomee Ponnamperuma* PEJOURNAL - In recent months, China has come under much scrutiny for its policies, starting from their mismanagement of the current global pandemic to the renewed hardline approach taken towards Hong Kong. Amidst the chaos, many in the West have overlooked the economic stronghold China has been building in the South Asian region, thanks to President Xi Jinping’s project of the century, the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). A project that certain academics refer to as China’s ‘debt-trap diplomacy’. Contrary to Western institutions such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank, China offers a…