BRI: Trap or Cooperation? Examining Evidence

China asks: If the BRI is truly a trap, why have more than 150 countries and 30 international

organizations joined it voluntarily? For Beijing — and for many of its partners — the “debt

trap” is not a financial reality, but a political invention: A tool designed

to preserve the old world order — where Western powers hold the monopoly over global

finance and development. Yes, China admits there are problems — cost overruns,

mismanagement, stalled projects — but it sees them as growing pains, not sinister schemes.

Between these two competing narratives — one of manipulation, the other of cooperation — lies the question:

What does the evidence actually say? What do the numbers reveal? Perhaps,