Asian Insider

Infrastructure wars: China reinvents Belt and Road in pandemic era

A section of elevated track under construction for the China State Railway Group high-speed rail network in April 2019. PHOTO: BLOOMBERG
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BEIJING/SINGAPORE - The pandemic has put a kink in President Xi Jinping's signature Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), as supply chains are disrupted and countries battered by the outbreak delay and even suspend projects.

The havoc wreaked by Covid-19 and the bad press surrounding this ambitious modern-day Silk Road - linking Asia, Europe and Africa via land and sea routes - have forced Beijing to restrategise, positioning the BRI as a "Green Silk Road", "Health Silk Road" and "Digital Silk Road".

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