BRI scepticism should prompt rigour, not rejection

IT'S a well-worn, if linguistically inaccurate, cliche that the Chinese word for "crisis" is composed of the characters for "danger" and "opportunity". With China's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), however, massive opportunities themselves seem to be accompanied by lurking dangers - if you subscribe to one strand of anxiety about the infrastructure push, at least.

Yet, rather than being seen as pouring cold water on the scheme, such worries might be precisely what is needed to take the BRI forward.

As the BRI unfolds, cautionary tales about white elephants or crippling debt have surfaced in its wake. One oft-cited example is Sri Lanka's Hambantota Po…