Opinion | What Malaysia and Pakistan could teach both China and the US about the Belt and Road Initiative

China’s Belt and Road Initiative has been described by President Xi Jinping as the “project of the century.” But with resistance growing, the vulnerabilities of China’s ascent are beginning to reveal opportunities for the United States to offer desirable alternatives.

As belt and road investments have rolled out across the world, they have been dogged by allegations of corruption and enabled by China’s willingness to seemingly ignore poor governance in its partners.

This dynamic is unsustainable. Malaysia and Pakistan, two of the largest beneficiaries of Chinese investment in recent years, are the latest to demonstrate concerns with Chinese belt and road initiatives in their nations. How Beijing responds, and whether it learns from its early mistakes, will determine the fate of Xi’s ambition and the type of power China becomes.

The new leaders of Malaysia and Pakistan are very different men. Malaysia’s Mahathir Mohamed is a nonagenarian second-time leader, with a decades-long career at the apex of Asian politics. Pakistan’s Imran Khan is a cricket legend turned rookie prime minister after two decades in the political wilderness.

But both won elections over the summer by challenging incumbents on the backs of populist, anti-corruption campaigns, centred in part on the surge in Chinese investment in the last five years. Just after his first visit to China as prime minister this week, Khan will travel to Kuala Lumpur to meet Mahathir next week.