The amounts invested and earmarked for investment are enormous—the largest such program since the Marshall Plan. It is a good demonstration that wealth = power. While these moves have been appreciated by the countries that received the benefits from roads and other infrastructure, resources, and trade, they have also sparked resentments from recipient countries who are having problems paying back their loans and find that China is too controlling, and from the United States because China’s assertions of soft power have lessened American influence in those countries.
