Puzzle No. 45: When?

Speaking at Nazarbayev University in Astana, Kazakhstan, on 7 September 2013, Chinese leader Xi Jinping proposed building a 'Silk Road Economic Belt' linking China across Central Asia to Europe. Combined with a maritime '21st-Century Silk Road' announced weeks later, the vision became the Belt and Road Initiative, China's signature foreign-economic policy. Through state-backed loans and construction firms, it financed ports, railways, highways, pipelines and power plants across Asia, Africa, the Middle East, Latin America and parts of Europe, eventually involving well over a hundred participating countries. The initiative expanded Chinese commercial reach, secured trade routes and resources, and extended Beijing's geopolitical influence, offering an alternative source of development finance to Western institutions. Critics raised concerns about debt sustainability, opaque contracts, environmental impact and strategic dependency. Whether seen as development partnership or instrument of power projection, the Belt and Road became a defining vehicle of China's global rise.

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