Is B3W another tool in the broad Western pushback against China?

THE G-7's new global infrastructure plan to rival China's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) sounds like a grand idea on paper but may turn out to be much ado about very little.

Dubbed Build Back Better World (B3W), the G-7 plan aims to offer an alternative to the BRI. The Biden administration, which led the push, touts it as a "high-standard and transparent infrastructure partnership" to help narrow a US$40 trillion infrastructure shortfall in the developing world. The other G-7 leaders at last week's summit seemed happy to go along, since it involved nothing more than a vague promise to channel private finance into presumably worthy projects.

Certainly, there are well-known examples of failure and shoddy dealings with China's scheme. Launched in 2013, the BRI was envisaged to create land and sea infrastructure that would link Asia, Europe and Africa to China. One of its best-known failures involved Sri Lanka's decision to build a big new port in Hambantota on the island's southern coast jointly with a Chinese state-owned enterprise (SOE). The port was built but turned out to be a commercial failure. After much wrangling, the Chinese SOE took over the port on a 99-year lease for US$1.1 billion.