China's cunning plan to defuse trade tensions and reduce financial tail-risk

About three years ago, I outlined China's plan to extend its infrastructure growth without creating more white elephant projects in China (see China's cunning plan to revive growth). Enter the One Belt, One Road (OBOR) initiative to create infrastructure projects in the region. OBOR projects were to financed by the Asia Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), which many countries had been falling all over themselves to finance. The infrastructure projects were to be led by (surprise) Chinese companies, which would extend their flagging growth.

Fast forward to 2018, The Nikkei Asian Review and The Banker issued a report card of OBOR projects. Here are their main findings:

Project delays After initial fanfare, projects sometimes experience serious delays. In Indonesia, construction on a $6 billion rail line is behind schedule and costs are escalating. Similar problems have plagued projects in Kazakhstan and Bangladesh.

Ballooning deficits Besides Pakistan, concerns about owing unmanageable debts to Beijing have been raised in Sri Lanka, the Maldives and Laos.

Sovereignty concerns In Sri Lanka, China's takeover of a troubled port has raised questions about a loss of sovereignty. And neighboring India
openly rejects the BRI, saying China's projects with neighboring Pakistan infringe on its sovereignty.

None of these problems are big surprises. I had outlined in my 2015 post that Chinese led infrastructure projects tended to see inflated costs, and the geopolitical objective of OBOR was to extend China's influence in the region.

Today, China faces two separate problems. The most immediate issue are rising trade tensions with the United States. The second and more pervasive issue is the growing mountain of debt, which are backed by less productive assets, which elevates financial tail-risk. The China bears' favorite chart exemplifies that problem.

The latest developments indicate that Beijing has developed a cunning plan to defuse both trend tensions and reduce financial tail-risk.

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