In theory, everyone who takes part in this revived Silk Road scheme—a list now more than 70 countries long—benefits from it. Chinese companies plowed more than $15 billion into the initiative last year, according to Beijing’s figures, but the rest is supposedly being fronted by the countries where the investments are being made. This is where Belt and Road gets really controversial, because many of these countries don’t have the cash. Instead, many are taking Chinese loans that they may not be able to repay. As a result, China has been frequently accused of “debt trap diplomacy” in the way Belt and Road is playing out. In 2017, China effectively seized Sri Lanka’s Hambantota port. It had provided the loan for building it, and Sri Lanka couldn’t cough up, so a debt-restructuring plan gave China a 99-year lease on the port and Sri Lanka the cash to repay the debt. Kenya’s Mombasa port may suffer a similar fate.
http://fortune.com/2019/03/14/what-is-china-belt-and-road-europe/