News Analysis On Belt and Road projects, “China offers substantial financing, usually as loans, but Beijing is not a member of the Paris Club and has never supported globally recognized transparent lending practices,” said Ambassador Alice Wells, principal deputy assistant secretary of state for South and Central Asian Affairs. A lack of transparency in the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) funding leaves citizens not knowing how much money their government has committed them to repaying or under what terms. Additionally, a stream of “free money” from the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) supports corruption and degrades democracy, as autocrats make themselves rich to ensure they remain in power. In 2013, when Chinese leader Xi Jinping first inaugurated the BRI, he used slogans like “a rising tide lifts all ships.” And the world seemed to believe him. Now, eight years later, the BRI has become synonymous with wasteful spending, environmental devastation, crippling …