I dislike the framing in this article, particularly the last paragraph.
The conclusion is clear?
The projects benefit both Serbia and China? A Win-Win situation? How dare they!
Seriously, looking critically at the Road and Belt initiative is perfectly warranted but this article focuses too much on the benefits for china as if that in itself were a bad thing.
The potential downsides or risks for Serbia are barely mentioned without going into any detail, why those things are supposed to be bad.
They keep pointing out that Serbia is paying for this as if paying for your own infrastructure were somehow an utterly alien concept. It's called an investment, you pay in advance to reap the benefits later.
If they want us to thinks it's a bad investment they should focus more on why they think it doesn't profit Serbia enough to justify the spending instead of pointing out how that helps China.
The half sentence "without broader national interest or benefit to its own economy." could have been at least two entire paragraphs pointing out downsides for Serbia, instead the article rambles on about how China builds a trade infrastructure, as if countries with such infrastructure wouldn't profit off trade as well.
It's frustrating to read how this article focuses on all the wrong arguments just to paint this oddly framed conclusion.
Nicht nur wirtschaftspolitisch.
Auch der Kulturkampf gegen Bürgergeldempfänger, Ausländer, Queere und die Grünen.