Beijing’s flagship foreign policy initiative, the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), has been mired in controversy since its inception, with critics warning that Beijing’s infrastructure projects place developing countries under a “debt trap” by offering unsustainable loans, while exploiting their natural resources to drive the Chinese economy.
Now, two letters from the South Pacific nation of Samoa have revealed how one Chinese construction project—being overseen by the government of Huizhou city in southern China—has been mired with quality problems and work practices that could harm the environment.
