China Reins In Its Infrastructure Strategy But Not Its Global Ambition

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  If you were sitting in Beijing right now

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  and you were looking at a global dashboard of China's overseas infrastructure project portfolio,

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  you would see a lot of flashing red lights.

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  That is Bradley Parks, the executive director of Adata,

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  the development research lab at William

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  and Mary's Global Research Institute that tracks how much China spends on its Belt

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  and Road infrastructure program.

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  In the early years of Belt and Road,

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  China went on a spending spree in pursuit of its economic and strategic goals,

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  financing bold engineering projects from mines and highways to ports and pipelines,

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  in addition to growing its influence around the globe.

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  But as the Journal's chief China correspondent Ling Lingwei pointed out

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  at the end of the first episode in this special what's News Sunday series,

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  those loans that China handed out to developing countries around the world weren't free money.

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  Eventually, the debt would have to be repaid.

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  And when it started coming due, signs of strain began to show.

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  I'm Luke Vargas for the Wall Street Journal, and in today's episode,

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  my colleague Kate Bullivant will be taking a look at how Beijing is trying to dig itself

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  out from the financial hole it created in the Belt

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  and Road's early years and shield itself from risks going forward,

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