Beijing

CHINA will gather its friends and allies together for its biggest diplomatic event of the year in May, a summit on its New Silk Road plan, with most Asian leaders due to attend but only one from a G-7 nation, the Italian prime minister.

President Xi Jinping has championed what China formally calls the "One Belt, One Road" or OBOR, initiative to build a new Silk Road linking Asia, Africa and Europe, a landmark programme to invest billions of dollars in infrastructure projects including railways, ports and power grids.