China’s One Belt One Road Initiative uses the economic currency it sucked from the capitalistic tits of America to snake that iron belt through more than 19 Latin America countries, as well as the Caribbeans and 131 countries worldwide. That Belt ties together strategic assets of other nations through loans. Sometimes not so honest leaders of said countries, like the corrupt regime in Venezuela, will hock their national assets for what might seem like “free money.” Such strategic Belt and Road Initiative infrastructure investments include ports, skyscrapers, railroads, roads, airports, dams, coal-fired power stations, and railroad tunnels.
It certainly wouldn’t hurt to have control of such assets in case you needed to seize control of access to any country that might have defaulted on a loan from the Initiative. The Belt Road Initiative began in 2013 and was incorporated into the Chinese Constitution in 2017 and is slated for completion in 2049. Xi is a masterful chess player/Monopoly player on the world stage.
Bill Gertz is a historian who has studied China for decades. He has written an interesting piece on the Belt and Roads Initiative as applied by Xi.
https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2022/jan/4/global-reach-china-expands-port-and-military-base-/?utm_source=Boomtrain&utm_medium=subscriber&utm_campaign=morning&utm_term=newsletter&utm_content=morning&bt_ee=FzkKsOIee92PfDipZqO6vSockMdMXbvx%2BNnobmD4tKvXxuqXivBLuu1aV6Y7%2B56G&bt_ts=1641379525870