In today's episode, we take a deep dive into the latest stats on China's surging investments in the Belt-and-Road Initiative countries. Energy investment is up, but we learn that this was both the 'greenest and dirtiest' year for BRI investments ever. Even as China's oil demand stagnates, China's SOEs and construction companies are doing brisk business investing in oil and gas, even as CATL and Jinko Solar find deals and opportunities in Latin America and Africa.

Our guest, Christoph Nedopil-Wang, is the director of the Griffith Asia Institute and Professor of Economics. Christoph engages in research related to sustainable finance and business in Asia and the Pacific, and he is particularly interested in the role of China in Asia's sustainable development with extensive engagement in green finance, green energy transition, green metals, climate smart state-owned enterprises (SOEs) and China's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). He has numerous publications related to the topic of China's overseas finance and green finance in general, and in particular he is the lead author of the China Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) Investment Report 2025, published by the Griffith Asia Institute in early January 2026, in collaboration with the Green Finance & Development Center (GFDC) of the Fanhai International School of Finance (FISF), in Fudan, China.

[Editorial note: a young family member can occasionally be heard in the background.]

Questions we address are:

• Is surging investment a surprise? And why is this happening just as China's domestic economy slows?
• Why is oil and gas investment surging when domestic demand is so soft?
• Is Chinese investment in minerals and minerals processing mainly a "scramble for resources" or is it a development opportunity for the recipient countries?
• Is Africa's growth of 300% a signficant trend change that could continue?
• Deal size is up. What ever happened to "small is beautiful"?
• Expectations for 2026

Further reading:

China Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) Investment Report 2025

https://blogs.griffith.edu.au/asiainsights/china-belt-and-road-initiative-bri-investment-report-2025-2/