In the first half of this year, China’s financing and investments for its Belt and Road project in Russia dropped to zero for the first time ever. This was revealed by the data obtained in a study by the Green Finance & Development Center, an affiliate of Fudan University in Shanghai, FT wrote.
This is clear evidence of China’s reluctance to incur sanctions imposed on Russia because of its invasion of Ukraine. In the reporting period, China signed no deals with Russia under the program. Sri Lanka and Egypt have also been denied investments.
At the same time, Christoph Nedopil Wang, director of the center, supposes this might be a temporary event. He also added that, despite the war in Ukraine, China increased purchases of Russian energy carriers.
The total Chinese investments under the Belt and Road program in the first half of 2022 amounted to $28.4 billion. By comparison, they were $29.6 billion for the same period in the previous year. According to the study, Saudi Arabia was the primary recipient of Chinese investments.
Context. Earlier, the European Union introduced the next (seventh) package of restrictive measures against Russia due to the war in Ukraine.
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