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Malaysia May Cancel Two Major Belt & Road Projects

On Tuesday, August 21, Malaysian president Mahathir Mohamad concluded his first visit in Beijing. During his 5-day visit, Mohamad re-negotiated with China for some $22 billion U.S. dollar infrastructure projects under the Belt and Road Initiative (also known as the One Belt One Road (OBOR) Initiative), in an effort to free Malaysia from their national debt crisis. Unlike his Beijing-friendly precursor, Mahathir is attempting to cancel two major China-backed infrastructure projects already in agreement with Beijing. – Weiting Li

BRICS Summit in Johannesburg, South Africa Considered Successful

On Wednesday, July 25, 2018, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa opened the 10th BRICS (Brazil, Russia, Indian, China, and South Africa) summit in Johannesburg, South Africa. A number of major agreements concluded the summit, including… Read more for our assessment and detailed summary. – Ziqing Zhang

China Nepal Cooperation on Railway as a part of One Belt One Road

From June 19th to the 24th, Nepal’s Prime Minister K.P. Sharma Oli met with Chinese President Xi Jinping and Premier Li Keqiang during Oli’s visit in Beijing to discuss Belt and Road Initiatives (BRI). Both sides expressed a willingness to work together to build a railway network across the Himalayan Mountains and increase economic ties through BRI (previously known as the One Belt One Road (OBOR) Initiative) transportation and communication projects.

Myanmar Could Fall Victim to Large Debt to China

On May 25, concerns over the price tag attached to a Myanmar port construction (China’s CITIC Group won the rights 3 years ago) arose as experts questioned why the project would cost so much. In addition, the less than flattering reports of China’s motivation behind the $7.5 billion deep-sea port in Kyaukpyu are being questioned by critics of the One Belt One Road Initiative (OBOR) also known as the Belt & Road Initiative (BRI). – Dillon Billingham