ABSTRACT
China is backing the Belt and Road Initiative vision with numerous different funds, and is using a diverse range of funding mechanisms and financial relationships to maximise China's options. These include an injection of money into domestic regions, dedicated multilateral and bilateral funding mechanisms, and a continuation of previous bilateral arrangements through traditional Chinese policy banks. The multilateral development bank framework of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank is clearly an important step for China, and it serves an ancillary foreign policy aim of showing China as the key player in Asian development. The fundamental point here is that China is sending large amounts of money and investment through its policy banks into Central and South Asia. Past experience of Chinese investment has raised suspicions that China is willing to engage in corrupt practices where money is taken from national funds and redirected to political elites.
