China has suddenly encountered a number of problems with its grandiose scheme to revive, modernise and then massively expand the Silk Road of old. Not only have several countries questioned and even pulled out of vital parts of the project. Some have rudely questioned the motives of Beijing's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), often and even better known as the One Belt, One Road programme.
Ironically, it had appeared momentarily that Thailand would be the major fly in the BRI ointment. If so, that would have hardly caused consternation in China. Officials of the two countries have wrangled for more than two years over one of the BRI's key parts. They have discussed and often disagreed over design, financing and even the workforce of the projected high-speed, north-south railway that it is hoped will link Singapore and Malaysia to Laos and China, through Bangkok and the Northeast.
Those disagreements, which have constantly delayed even the first, Bangkok-Nakhon Ratchasima link, now appear almost quaint. For as the recent US president Barack Obama once noted, "elections have consequences". China is learning that lesson quickly, as new governments in Malaysia and Pakistan quickly began to re-examine the previous commitments to One Belt, One Road.
