The success of China-Europe rail freight raises the question of its subsidy policy. In 2022, an adjustment seems more likely than an outright end to subsidies.

Against the prevailing narrative of the The Belt and Road as a top-down strategy to spread China’s geopolitical influence, there is the BRI’s impact through its first decade as emanating «from the middle out and bottom up» via transport-enabled corridors traversing a large number of regions within and across national territories.