CHINA'S nearly decade-old Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) is one of the most ambitious large-scale development plans ever undertaken by a single country. Depending on one's point of view, it is either an intensive application of debt-trap imperialism or an evolution in transport and trade connectivity between East and West; the reality is it is some of both.

Objectively, a substantial majority of BRI projects have been successful, resulting in new roads, rail connections, port facilities, bridges, and other infrastructure such as dams and flood control projects. However, those are not the projects that get the attention of the outside world; rather, it is the spectacular failures, vanity projects, white elephants and economic black holes that are most noticed and discussed in detail.