YCLOAK

Foreign governments and businesses were hoping Chinese President Xi Jinping would use the opening of China’s first international import expo to make specific announcements about reforms for trade and investment.  But that did not happen, and some saw the measures Xi rolled out Monday as falling short of expectations.

 

“We were waiting today for President Xi to inform the world about the reform that will take place in the coming days, but what we wanted to hear, (such as) the complete steps on implementing the reform and a clear timetable did not appear,” said Carlo Diego D’Andrea, vice president and Shanghai Chapter chairman of the European Chamber of Commerce in China.

 

In his speech, President Xi said China would relax barriers to access in areas such as financial services, agriculture, mining and education and boost the consumption of imported goods as well as lower tariffs.  He also said China would create a better business environment with a sound regulatory system, including bolstering punitive measures for violations of intellectual property rights.

 

On the issue of protection of intellectual property rights, Xi admitted China has room to improve, but he also followed up by saying those who complain about Chinese commercial practices should not hold a flashlight that only exposes others and not themselves.

 

Xi did not mention the United States directly or President Donald Trump’s tariffs, but some of his remarks appeared to be directed towards Washington.

 

As trade frictions with the United States continue, Xi pledged to boost imports and said China would import as much as $30 trillion in goods and $10 trillion in services during the next 15 years.  Last year, China imported $1.84 trillion in goods and $458 billion in services.

 

“China will lower tariffs, make customs clearance more convenient, reduce institutional costs in the import sector, and accelerate the development of new business models,” Xi said.

 

Although the China International Import Expo was planned well before trade tensions with the United States began to peak, some believe Beijing is using its hosting of the exhibition as an attempt to shift the country’s growing buying power elsewhere.

 

China’s middle class is nearly as large as the entire population of the United States.

Thousands of foreign companies are participating in the expo.  Some countries, such as Kenya, even have national pavilions at the event to help attract interest in their products and to boost ties.  Kenya’s President Uhuru Kenyatta was among several leaders who spoke at the opening ceremony Monday in addition to Xi.

 

Kenyatta was optimistic about trade opportunities with Beijing.  The Kenyan president noted how China is his nation’s biggest trading partner, with trade growing from $471 million in 2007 to $4 billion in 2017.

 

“This trade, however, was skewed heavily in favor of China,” Kenyatta said, noting concerns similar to those coming out of Washington.  “It is important therefore to correct the trade imbalance and enable a fairer share of trade.”

 

Xi voiced support for CIIE host city Shanghai as a center for technology and innovation, noting that it would continue to take the lead going forward.

 

China wants Shanghai to be one of the world’s leading global financial centers by 2020 and Xi expressed his support for the Shanghai stock indexes’ technology and innovation bourse that was launched in 2015, but has had lackluster appeal.

 

Tang Xuan, an assistant to the chairman of Nanliv Nano Technology, which is based in Shanghai, hoped the comments would give the index a boost.

 

“With Chairman Xi’s support, the high-tech innovation stock index may likely become more open and more active in future, which will perhaps spell good news for companies like ours and provide a stepping stone for us before we list on the main bourse,” Tang said.

 

But analysts say boosting confidence and growing the country’s attractiveness for investment will take more than just soundbites or massive trade shows.

 

Despite all of its proclaimed allegiance to openness and progress during the past four decades, China remains one of the world’s most protectionist economies.  The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development ranks China 59 out of 62 countries in terms of openness for foreign direct investment.

 

D’Andrea said the expo will definitely help many countries reduce their trade deficits with China, but it will not address the country’s internal reform deficit.

 

“At the moment, the lack of internal reform, plus the external pressure made by the Trump administration and the trade dispute behind the U.S. and China may put on hold further investment from European countries into Chinese markets,” D’Andrea said.
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European Union and Japanese plans to form the world’s largest free trade area cleared a significant hurdle Monday when EU lawmakers specializing in trade backed a deal that could enter force next year.

The European Parliament’s international trade committee voted 25 in favor to 10 against to clear the deal for a final vote in the parliament’s full chamber set for December 13.

An agreement would bind two economies accounting for about a third of global gross domestic product and also signal their rejection of protectionism.

Both have faced trade tensions with Washington and remain subject to U.S. tariffs imposed by President Donald Trump on imports of steel and aluminum.

Japan had been part of the 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership that Trump rejected on his first day in office, turning Tokyo’s focus to other potential partners – such as the European Union.

The EU has also sought other partners after freezing TTIP (Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership) negotiations with the United States in 2016. It concluded an updated trade deal with Mexico earlier this year.

Both have since agreed to start trade talks with Washington.

The EU-Japan agreement will remove EU tariffs of 10 percent on Japanese cars and 3 percent for most car parts. It would also scrap Japanese duties of some 30 percent on EU cheese and 15 percent on wines, and open access to public tenders in Japan.

It will also open up services markets, in particular financial services, telecoms, e-commerce and transport.

The EU is mindful of protests against and criticism of the EU-Canada Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) in 2016, which culminated in a region of Belgium threatening to destroy the deal. It finally entered force in 2017.

Critics say the EU-Japan agreement will give too much power to multinationals and could undermine environmental and labor standards, the latter because they say Japanese employees face tougher conditions and less adequate union representation.

Belgium’s regions have given their backing.

Both Brussels and Tokyo want the agreement to enter force early in 2019, before Britain leaves the EU at the end of March.

If it does, it could apply automatically to Britain during a transition period until the end of 2020 and offer comfort to the many Japanese car makers serving the EU from British bases.
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Chinese President Xi Jinping promised on Monday to lower tariffs, broaden market access and import more from overseas at the start of a trade expo designed to demonstrate goodwill amid mounting frictions with the United States and others.

The Nov. 5-10 China International Import Expo, or CIIE, brings thousands of foreign companies together with Chinese buyers in a bid to demonstrate the importing potential of the world’s second-biggest economy.

In a speech that largely echoed previous promises, Xi said China would accelerate opening of the education, telecommunications and cultural sectors, while protecting foreign companies’ interests and punishing violations of intellectual property rights.

He also said he expects China to import $30 trillion worth of goods and $10 trillion worth of services in the next 15 years. Last year, Xi estimated that China would import $24 trillion worth of goods over the coming 15 years.

“CIIE is a major initiative by China to proactively open up its market to the world,” Xi said.

U.S. President Donald Trump has railed against China for what he sees as intellectual property theft, entry barriers to U.S. business and a gaping trade deficit.

Foreign business groups, too, have grown weary of Chinese reform promises, and while opposing Trump’s tariffs, have longed warned that China would invite retaliation if it didn’t match the openness of its trading partners.

Xi said the expo showed China’s desire to support global free trade, adding – without mentioning the United States – that countries must oppose protectionism.

He said “multilateralism and the free trade system is under attack, factors of instability and uncertainty are numerous, and risks and obstacles are increasing.”

“With the deepening development today of economic globalisation, ‘the weak falling prey to the strong’ and ‘winner takes all’ are dead-end alleys,” he said.

Louis Kuijs, head of Asia economics at Oxford Economics, said the speech was meaningful, if short on fresh initiatives.

“I don’t think that there were necessarily path-breaking new reforms announced by him today, but I guess I would take this as a confirmation that China is very keen to be seen as continuing to open up further and committing to that stance,” he said.

China imported $1.84 trillion of goods in 2017, up 16 percent, or $255 billion, from a year earlier. Of that total, China imported about $130 billion of goods from the United States. The Chinese government’s top diplomat, State Councillor Wang Yi, said in March that China would import $8 trillion of goods in the next five years.

Focus on G20

Expectations had been low that Xi would announce bold new policies of the kind that many foreign governments and businesses have been seeking.

The European Union, which shares U.S. concerns over China’s trade practices if not Trump’s tariff strategy to address them, on Thursday called on China to take concrete steps to further open its market to foreign firms and provide a level playing field, adding that it would not sign up to any political statement at the forum.

With little in the way of fresh policies from Xi on Monday, all eyes now turn to an expected meeting between him and Trump at the G20 summit in Argentina at the end of the month.

“It seems like what (Xi) is actually doing is saving up all of his goodies to trade away with Trump as opposed to doing anything unilateral,” said Scott Kennedy, a Chinese economic expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. “Now everything is focused on the G20.”

Trump has said that if a deal is not made with China, he could impose tariffs on another $267 billion of Chinese imports into the United States.

On Monday, Trump said China wants to make a deal. “If we can make the right deal, a deal that’s fair, we’ll do that.

Otherwise we won’t do it,” he told supporters on a conference call.

In a sign the trade row is starting to bite, export orders to the United States recorded during China’s biggest trade show, the Canton Fair in October, dropped 30.3 percent from a year earlier by value, the fair’s organizer China Foreign Trade Center said.

Presidents or prime ministers from 17 countries were set to attend the expo, ranging from Russia and Pakistan to the Cook Islands, though none from major Western nations. Government ministers from several other countries were also coming, but no senior U.S. officials were set to attend.

Swiss President Alain Berset did not make the trip to China, despite being announced as among attendees by China’s foreign ministry last week. The Swiss government said in a statement to Reuters on Sunday that his visit had never been confirmed.

Some Western diplomats and businesses have been quietly critical of the expo, arguing it is window dressing to what they see as Beijing’s long-standing trade abuses.

Exhibitors from around 140 countries and regions will be on hand, including 404 from Japan, the most of any country. From the United States, some 136 exhibitors will attend, including Google, Dell, Ford and General Electric.

A handful of countries are being represented by a single exhibitor selling one product.

For Iraq, it’s crude oil. Iran, saffron. Jamaica will be marketing its famed blue mountain coffee and Chad is selling bauxite. Tiny São Tomé is selling package holidays.
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With the economy strong, wages rising and unemployment at a near-five-decade low, the Federal Reserve remains on track to keep raising interest rates – just not this week.

After the Fed’s latest policy meeting, it’s expected to signal a healthy outlook for the economy but to hold off on any further credit tightening, most likely until December. A rate hike in December would mark the fourth this year.

Further rate increases are expected in 2019, though just how many is a subject of speculation. On the eve of Congress’ midterm elections, the U.S. economy remains vigorous even in its 10th year of expansion – the second-longest such stretch on record.

In deciding how fast or slowly to keep raising rates, the Fed will be monitoring the pace of growth, the job market’s strength and gauges of inflation for clues to how the economy may evolve in the coming months. The brisk pace of economic growth – a 3.5 percent annual rate in the July-September quarter, after a 4.2 percent rate in the previous quarter – has raised the risk that inflation could begin accelerating.

In its most recent forecast, the Fed projected that it would raise rates three additional times in 2019. Some economists, though, foresee only two hikes. Others expect economic growth to remain solid and the job market strong and that the Fed will decide that four rate increases will be justified next year to guard against high inflation. At 3.7 percent, the unemployment rate is already at its lowest level since 1969.

“The Fed is going to have to continue raising rates next year because the unemployment rate is going to keep falling to close to 3 percent, well beyond full employment,” said Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Analytics. “There is nothing but green lights for more rate hikes straight ahead.”

On Friday, the government reported that the economy added a sizable 250,000 jobs in October and that average pay rose 3.1 percent over the previous 12 months – the sharpest year-over-year gain in nearly a decade. That’s welcome news for workers. But it’s a trend that may raise concern that accelerating wages will help fuel undesirably high inflation.

Chairman Jerome Powell has stressed that the Fed is determined to follow a middle-of-the-road approach: Keep gradually nudging up rates to control inflation but avoid tightening too aggressively and perhaps triggering a recession.

“They are walking a tightrope,” said Diane Swonk, chief economist at Grant Thornton.

The Fed has raised rates three times this year, lifting its benchmark rate to a range – 2 percent to 2.25 percent – that is still low by historical standards. Most economists think the statement the Fed will issue Thursday after its policy meeting ends will hint of another imminent increase, likely in December.

The Fed’s policymakers have stressed, and most economists agree, that these small quarter-point increases amount to a gradual pace of credit tightening. But President Donald Trump has sharply disagreed, and since the stock market started tumbling last month, he has attacked the Fed’s rate hikes as well as Powell’s leadership. Trump’s public criticism has aroused concern that he is intruding on the central bank’s long-respected political independence and its need to operate free of outside pressure.

At the same time, the nervousness among stock investors reflects the reality that the Fed’s steady march toward higher rates is removing a key factor that has underpinned the bull market in stocks: The richer returns that investors could achieve in stocks than in bonds or savings accounts.

Fed critics had charged that the central bank was creating a bubble in stocks that would eventually pop with disastrous results. Trump, who has often invoked high stock prices as evidence that his economic policies are succeeding, has made clear his disagreement. He has called the Fed, with its string of rate increases, “my biggest threat.”

Powell, who was Trump’s hand-picked choice to lead the Fed, has avoided responding directly. The chairman has instead expressed determination to pursue the Fed’s mandate of maximizing employment and stabilizing prices without regard to political considerations.

To that end, Swonk, like Zandi, suggests that the Fed will raise rates four times next year because she thinks the economy will slow only slightly. Other analysts foresee a more significant slowdown as the tariffs Trump has imposed on many imports begins to depress growth.

“The economic outlook will not be strengthening next year; it will be weakening, not only in the U.S. but also globally,” said Sung Won Sohn, chief economist at SS Economics.

Sohn said he thinks the Fed may decide to tighten credit only once or twice in 2019.

David Jones, the author of books about the Fed, said he thinks that after December, the central bank will raise rates twice more in 2019 and then stop. Jones said he bases that forecast on his belief that the Fed won’t want to lift rates above what it sees as the “neutral” level. This is the point at which the Fed’s key rate is thought to neither stimulate the economy nor restrain it.

The median assessment of Fed officials has pegged the neutral rate at 3 percent. One more rate increase this year and two more in 2019 would leave the Fed’s benchmark rate at a range of 2.75 percent to 3 percent.

“I think Powell is determined to get to neutral and then see how the economy performs,” Jones said.
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China has agreed to carry out bilateral trade with Pakistan in the Chinese yuan instead of the U.S. dollar to help ease the South Asian ally’s financial and economic woes.

The unprecedented Chinese concession, officials and economists said, would go a long way in addressing Islamabad’s massive 87-percent trade deficit with Beijing and reducing pressure on Pakistan’s depleting foreign currency reserves.

“The agreement is part of practical steps being taken [by China] to support our [foreign] currency [reserves],” said Pakistani Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry.

He told reporters in Islamabad the “historic” deal was concluded along with more than a dozen others during Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan’s four-day official visit to Beijing, which ended Monday.

The annual trade volume between the two countries is about $15 billion, of which Chinese exports to Pakistan are estimated at around $13 billion.

Pakistan’s foreign exchange reserves have lately fallen to less than $8 billion and the country urgently needs about $12 billion to service foreign debts and pay for imports.

The central State Bank of Pakistan has already declared Yuan as an approved foreign exchange for all purposes in the country.

Information Minister Chaudhry said the Chinese government separately has also offered an economic package to Pakistan, and its details will be announced Tuesday when Khan’s delegation returns home.

Reports said the proposed package includes $3 billion in Chinese grants and loans, while another $3 billion will be given for investment under the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) infrastructure building project, a centerpiece of Beijing’s global Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).

The Chinese financial relief is being negotiated amid U.S.-led criticism and skepticism that unfair loans under CPEC are contributing to Pakistan’s balance of payments crisis.

China and Pakistan reject the criticism as baseless and part of propaganda against both CPEC andBRI.

Khan’s nascent government last month secured a financial package of more than $6 billion from Pakistan’s staunch ally Saudi Arabia. Under the deal, Saudis will lend $3 billion and would allow Islamabad to import oil worth more than $3 billion on deferred payments over the next three years.

Officials say the United Arab Emirates is also considering economic relief to Pakistan similar to what Saudi Arabia has pledged.

Prime Minister Khan has said the funds being secured from the three friendly countries will enable Pakistan not to seek a major bailout package from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to meet the country’s immediately liabilities.

An IMF team is due to arrive in Islamabad later this week to open formal talks with the Pakistani government on the subject.
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Chinese President Xi Jinping said Monday that China would take steps to widen access to its markets as he opened a huge trade fair amid criticism from other countries about China’s economic and business practices.

Xi said China would lower tariffs, take more action to punish violations of intellectual property rights, and work to boost domestic consumption of imported goods.

Speaking at the trade expo in Shanghai, Xi pledged to “embrace the world” as China promotes the growing consumer market in the world’s second-largest economy.

He did not mention U.S. President Donald Trump by name, but alluded to Trump’s “America first” economic policies by criticizing isolationism and citing a need to defend multilateral trade.

​The United States and China are locked in a battle over trade, with Trump complaining about the trade gap between the two countries and accusing China of stealing intellectual property and imposing policies that make it more difficult for U.S. companies to access the Chinese market.

Trump has announced boosted tariffs on $250 billion of Chinese goods, while China has countered with $110 billion in tariffs on U.S. products. Xi and Trump are expected to meet later this month.

The European Union has also complained about China’s trade policies, including criticizing Xi for not following through on earlier reform pledges. The EU called last week for Xi to present concrete steps to opening its market.
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When employees enter Saba — an Israeli restaurant started by award-winning chef Alon Shaya — they pass by the company’s mission statement, which emphasizes the importance of a safe and comfortable working environment. Only at the end does it really get around to food with the words: “Then, we will cook and serve and be happy.”

“The team is number one and that is who we are as a company,” said Shaya, explaining the genesis of his and his wife’s new venture, Pomegranate Hospitality , which includes restaurants in New Orleans and Denver, and the environment he hopes to create for the company’s nearly 150 employees.

Discussions about new restaurants generally revolve around the food. And at Saba the piping hot pita bread or the blue crab hummus is discussion-worthy. But long before the first plate of shakshouka was served, Shaya and his team focused on how to create an inclusive work environment different than the toxic restaurant workplaces exposed by the #MeToo movement.

Just over a year ago, Shaya was part owner and executive chef of three restaurants in the Besh Restaurant Group, headed by New Orleans chef John Besh, including his James Beard-awarding winning namesake Israeli restaurant.

Then a story in NOLA.com/The Times-Picayune detailed allegations of sexual misconduct in Besh’s company, causing Besh to step down. Shaya wasn’t personally accused of misconduct but the story detailed allegations of harassment at two of his restaurants. Shaya was quoted in the story about concerns he had over BRG’s then-lack of a human resources department. Shaya has said that’s what led to his firing — something Besh’s company disputed. A messy legal battle ensued during which Shaya lost all rights to his namesake restaurant.

Fast forward to current day: Shaya sits at Saba discussing the policies and procedures Pomegranate has put in place to ensure a safe working environment.

The interview process includes questions way beyond whether a person has waited tables before (‘What was the last gift you bought for somebody?’). Management holds 30- and 90-day chats with new employees and then every six months. The restaurants are closed Monday and Tuesday so everyone has a guaranteed two days in a row off.

Women populate high-profile roles including executive chef in New Orleans. About 60 percent of each restaurant’s staff is women. They’ve adopted ideas from other restaurants including a system used by Erin Wade at the Oakland, California-based Homeroom to deal with sexual harassment and a code of conduct for guest chefs used by Raleigh, N.C.-based restaurateur Ashley Christiansen.

Service is limited during 2:30 to 4 p.m. so the staff can sit together for a meal, often accompanied by staff presentations to their co-workers. Some topics are work-related. But employees are also encouraged to share what interests them. During a recent session, cook Timmy Harris talked to the waiters, managers, and cooks about existentialism, Southern literature and author Walker Percy.

“It kind of drives home the point that this is a place for people to develop themselves. It’s not just a restaurant. We’re not just slinging pita,” Harris said after.

Shaya said he can’t talk much about what happened while working at BRG for legal reasons but says now that he and his wife own their company they’re able to create the structure they want.

“Even in our restaurants someone will be inappropriate at some point,” Shaya said. “And I know that when that happens people are going to jump on it because people have really bought into the values.”

Experts say many issues have contributed to sexual misconduct in the restaurant industry, including a tipping structure that can inhibit servers — often women — from complaining about out-of-line customers, little training for managers and high turnover. Restaurants’ small size — often family-owned or single units — has historically meant they don’t have strong HR policies, said Juan Madera, an associate professor at the Conrad N. Hilton College of Hotel and Restaurant Management.

Allegations of sexual misconduct at restaurants and the wider #MeToo discussion have been a “wakeup call for restaurants,” Madera said. He’s hearing from restaurant associations and others who want to figure out how to prevent sexual harassment in the workplace.

Raleigh, N.C.-based chef and restaurateur Ashley Christiansen, who talked with Shaya about his new venture, says a restaurant’s HR presence is as important as the food or the linen service. She says it’s difficult to measure how much progress has been made across the industry since the growth of the #MeToo movement, but she sees cause for optimism.

“I feel like it’s the thing I talk about more than food now, and I think that’s a positive thing,” she said.

Shaya says his new venture hasn’t been without problems. He’s fired one person who was cursing at another employee. But he’s also been inspired by staff members calling out someone who makes an off-color joke or not tolerating negativity.

“We’ve taken it down to the very basics of kindness, and we stick to it and I feel that we’ve attracted a lot of people who believe in that,” he said.
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Facing a blizzard of trade complaints, China is throwing an “open for business” import fair hosted by President Xi Jinping to rebrand itself as a welcoming market and positive global force. 

More than 3,000 companies from 130 countries selling everything from Egyptian dates to factory machinery are attending the China International Import Expo, opening Monday in the commercial hub of Shanghai. Its VIP guest list includes prime ministers and other leaders from Russia, Pakistan and Vietnam. 

The United States, fighting a tariff war with Beijing, has no plans to send a high-level envoy. 

Xi’s government is emphasizing the promise of China’s growing consumer market to help defuse complaints Beijing abuses the global trading system by reneging on promises to open its industries. 

“This says, look, we’re not a global parasite that is creating massive deficits, we are buying goods,” said Kerry Brown, a Chinese politics specialist at King’s College London. 

The event also is part of efforts to develop a trading network centered on China and increase its influence in a Western-dominated global system. 

President Donald Trump and his “America First” trade policies that threaten to raise import barriers to the world’s biggest consumer market loom in the background. 

Exporters, especially developing countries, want closer relations with China to help “insulate themselves from what is happening with Trump and the U.S.,” said Gareth Leather of Capital Economics. 

China has cut tariffs and announced other measures this year to boost imports, which rose 15.9 percent in 2017 to $1.8 trillion. But none addresses the U.S. complaints about its technology policy that prompted Trump to impose penalty tariffs of up to 25 percent on $250 billion worth of Chinese imports. Beijing has responded with tariff hikes on $110 billion worth of American imports. 

Chinese ambitions

Chinese leaders have rejected pressure to roll back plans such as “Made in China 2025,” which calls for state-led creation of global champions in robotics and other fields, ambitions that some American officials worry will undermine U.S. industrial leadership. 

To keep the economy growing, China needs to nurture its consumer market, and that requires more imports. 

But foreign companies say regulators are still trying to squeeze them out of promising industries and that they face pressure to hand over technology. 

The Shanghai expo “will be of little consequence to U.S. and other companies unless its pageantry is matched by meaningful and measurable changes in China trade practices,” Kenneth Jarrett, president of the American Chamber of Commerce in Shanghai, said in an email. 

Some companies might get a brief sales boost, “but its long-run impact will be defined by China’s willingness to end many of its unfair trade practices,” said Jarrett. 

Europe, Japan and other trading partners have been leery of Trump’s tactics but echo U.S. complaints. 

They say Beijing improperly hampers access to finance, logistics and other service industries. European leaders are frustrated that Beijing bars foreign acquisitions of most assets while its own companies are on a global buying spree. 

Writing in a Chinese business magazine, the French and German ambassadors to Beijing appealed for changes including an end to requirements that foreign companies operate in joint ventures with state-owned partners. They called for an overhaul of rules they say hinder companies from profiting from and protecting their technology. 

“We encourage China to address these issues through concrete and systematic measures that go beyond tariff adjustments,” Ambassadors Jean-Maurice Ripert of France and Clemens von Goetze of Germany wrote in the magazine Caixin. 

China already is the No. 1 trading partner for all its Asian neighbors, though a big share of the iron ore, industrial components and other goods it buys are turned into smartphones, TV sets and other goods for export. 

Better access to some goods

Tariff cuts announced over the past year were aimed at giving Chinese consumers better access to foreign goods. Chinese leaders emphasize those include anti-cancer drugs and other medical products. But many are specialty goods such as high-end baby strollers, avocados and mineral water that don’t compete with Chinese suppliers. 

The Shanghai expo also gives Beijing a chance to repair its image following complaints about its “Belt and Road Initiative” to expand trade by building ports, railways and other infrastructure across a vast arc of 65 countries from the South Pacific through Asia to Africa and Europe. 

Governments including Nepal, Sri Lanka and Thailand have scrapped or scaled back projects because of high costs or complaints that too little work goes to local companies. Sri Lanka, Kenya and other nations have run into trouble repaying Chinese loans. 

“It’s become too associated with debt and China getting what it wants,” said Brown. “They are trying to get out this more positive message that China is open for business.”  
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