Over the last two decades, China has pumped huge amounts of money into owning the world’s critical raw materials and infrastructure. In effect, it was trying to buy an empire. But over the last few weeks something has become painfully clear. It failed, and in the end, financial power is no substitute for the real thing. Launched in 2013 by President Xi Jinping, the Belt and Road Initiative aimed to connect the world through cheap loans and equity partnerships that spanned the world. To many policy analysts, it looked like a concentrated effort to turn China into a superpower to match the United States. It was variously described as “debt-trap diplomacy,” “creditor imperialism” or a “Trojan Gift.” As far back as 2011, Hillary Clinton, when she was secretary of state in the Obama administration, was warning of a “new colonialism” in Africa as China expanded its influence across the continent.

Full opinion : How China tried to use its economic muscle to influence countries and failed.