“When this tracker is read alongside our trackers on overseas ports and airports, a fuller picture emerges of China’s growing global economic footprint. Chinese firms naturally gravitate toward places with easy access to markets, strong local demand, and infrastructure, such as ports and airports, in which Chinese entities have already invested. In other cases, industrial parks form one component of larger Chinese development packages that bundle infrastructure such as ports and railroads.”
“Of the 194 projects tracked, 145 are operational or under construction and 16 have been canceled or suspended. The status of the remaining 33 projects is not publicly available. Private firms are responsible for most of the projects (114), followed by state-owned enterprises (72 projects) and public-private partnerships (2 projects). Ownership data was unavailable for the remaining 6 projects.”
“Some of the highest-profile projects in this dataset are industrial parks embedded within larger Chinese-financed port developments and special economic zones. Projects in Colombo (Sri Lanka), Gwadar (Pakistan), and Kyaukphyu (Myanmar) were designed from the outset to integrate industrial operations with port infrastructure, enabling direct trade links with China. Once operational, those sites have tended to facilitate deepening political and economic ties with Beijing—and their proximity to ports has made them more resilient to short-term economic headwinds.”