Abstract

SPELLMANN, Samuel  and  CUNHA LEITE, Alexandre César. The Trend of Reduced Chinese Investments in the Belt and Road Initiative: Spending Contentions and Preparations for an Upcoming Financial Crisis. Desafíos [online]. 2020, vol.32, n.1, pp.296-327. ISSN 0124-4035.  https://doi.org/10.12804/revistas.urosario.edu.co/desafios/a.7705.

The article explains changing patterns of investment presented by non-financial Chinese foreign direct investment (FDI) flows related to the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). First, a reduction in investments in BRI is verified through analysis of the Statistical Bulletin of China’s Outward FDI between the years of 2013 and 2016. These years compose the first quadrennium since the official announcement of the development of the Belt and Road Initiative. Afterwards, seeking to explain the reduction of non-financial Chinese FDI flows to BRI, this article analyses two hypotheses. First, the article portrays the current public spending control measures by the Chinese administration, facing the growing public debt of the country and overcapacity while also discussing the similarities between China's economy to the Japanese crisis of the early 1990s. Then, the article analyses the ongoing preparations by Chinese authorities as countermeasures to an impending financial instability in global markets. The confluence of these factors helps to explain the reduction of non-financial outward FDI flows to the BRI, which contrasts with contemporary upward tendencies related to Chinese investment all over the world in the same period.

Keywords : China; Belt and Road Initiative; outward foreign direct investment.

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