Since the announcement of the BRI by China’s President Xi Jinping, the scope of the project has become limitless. It has expanded into the “Pacific Silk Road,” reaching to South America. It has crossed into the Arctic and is known there as the “Silk Road on Ice.” The “Maritime Silk Road” is the shipping lane that connects Chinese ports all the way to Venice. The “Silk Road Economic Belt” is a tangle of railroads and highways across the continent from eastern China to Scandinavia.
So far, China has spent an estimated $200 billion on the BRI projects. To date, at least 68 countries are involved, accounting for nearly two-thirds of the world’s population. All projects are funded partly by Chinese banks and state-owned companies. It announced that a total of $1 trillion will be spent on hundreds of projects around the world in the coming years. At its final stage the cost could reach $8 trillion. The BRI project is mind-blogging.