China may have become more cautious on its mounting corporate debts, but it has no intention of slowing its investments in the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), with the country’s biggest foreign investment bank committing $250 billion in loans to the trade plan. By some estimates, China plans to pump $150bn into BRI projects each year. In a report released at the start of this year, ratings agency Fitch said an extraordinary $900bn in projects were planned or underway. Southeast Asian countries, particularly developing countries like Indonesia and the Philippines, have largely welcomed BRI, which aims to promote close regional trade and investment linkage based on the improvement of interregional physical connectivity.