China wants to build a giant 'road' through 68 countries

When it comes to infrastructure, China is of the "go big or go home" mindset. The nation that once built a 13,100-mile wall and constructed a hydroelectric dam so massive that it changed the rotation of the Earth has now proposed an enormous global road that would connect 65 percent of the human population:

The intercontinental network of land and maritime corridors would cost more than a trillion dollars and would link more than 68 countries and a quarter of the world's GDP. Axios writes, "If the project is realized as envisioned, much of world trade would be linked to Chinese economic strategy." Or, as a European official put it to The Wall Street Journal: "It's about selling their stuff."

For The Week, Pascal-Emmanuel Gobry argues that Chinese President Xi Jinping is using the so-called "One Belt, One Road" initiative to try to paint a picture in which "America's economy is stagnating under Trump" and "China is a new rising economic superpower." "Of course, this is all balderdash," Gobry writes; read his analysis here.

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