由于受贸易战和中共病毒疫情的影响，中共经济遭受重创，对外“大撒币”也大幅缩水。据《金融时报》报导，中共国家开发银行和中国进出口银行，对“一带一路”放贷呈现断崖式下滑。从2016年最高峰的750亿美元，下滑至2019年仅40亿美元。
“一带一路”正演变成中共第一个海外债务危机，接受中共贷款的“一带一路”国家中，至少有18国与北京开展债务谈判，涉及以百亿美元计的债务。
报导说，中共必须考虑“一带一路”债务的可持续性，否则自己得承担这些基建计划的风险，从而陷入经济困境。
波士顿大学（Boston University）数据显示，2008年至2019年，中共国家开发银行与中国进出口银行的对外放贷规模达4,620亿美元，仅略少于世界银行（World Bank）的4,670亿美元。
华府智库“战略暨国际研究中心”（CSIS）资深研究员希尔曼表示，中共为扩张强权将基础建设推广至国外，是个错误模式。
他认为，北京如果无法或不愿提供债务国足够的债务豁免，恐置身于开发中市场的债务危机中心。
习近平上台后，中共推动“一带一路”项目，实施对外扩张。“一带一路”剑指欧洲，深入俄国周边地区，向第三世界发展中国家输出资金和产能，以帮助所在国基础建设为名，引诱中小国家与中共合作，致使参与“一带一路”的中小国家背上巨额债务，受中共胁迫。
“一带一路”背后有其战略企图，一旦这些国家没钱还债，就必须提供天然资源或是租借重要港口来抵债。如斯里兰卡就被迫将深水良港汉班托塔（Hambantota）“租借”给中共99年。
然而，中共在“一带一路”大撒币，也使自身背上沉重债务。今年爆发中共病毒疫情，更重创了许多“一带一路”国家的经济。专家指出，一旦这些国家的债务成为呆账，中共的债权损失将难以估计。
香港《苹果日报》的评论文章说，一带一路无以为继，但中共已无法抽身而出，各中小国家见中共扩张难以为继，更以赖债为乐，而中共在无计可施之下，只能把这颗苦果吞下去。
文章指出，这都是中共对外扩张惹的祸，如果习近平不做“构建人类命运共同体”的白日梦，美中关系不至于恶化，一带一路的“烂尾债”也可以避免。一念之差，贻害无穷，习的后悔药，只怕要长久吃下去了。
Hong Kong media: Xi Jinping's regret medicine, may have to eat for a long time
The "Belt and Road" project advocated by Xi Jinping is in deep debt crisis, the Hong Kong media said, which is the disaster of the Chinese Communist Party's foreign expansion. (Lintao Zhang/Pool/Getty Images)
The "Belt and Road" project advocated by Xi Jinping is in deep debt crisis, the Hong Kong media commented that this is the disaster of the Chinese Communist Party's foreign expansion, if Xi does not daydream of "building a community of human destiny", U.S.-China relations will not deteriorate, the "Belt and Road" bad debt. If Xi had not pursued his daydream of "building a community of human destiny," U.S.-China relations would not have deteriorated and the "Belt and Road" bad debt could have been avoided. Now it seems that Xi's regret pill will have to be eaten for a long time.
The Chinese economy has been hit hard by the trade war and the Chinese virus epidemic, and the external "big money" has shrunk significantly. According to the Financial Times, the Communist Party's China Development Bank and the Export-Import Bank of China have seen a precipitous decline in lending to the "Belt and Road". From a peak of $75 billion in 2016, it has fallen to just $4 billion in 2019.
The "Belt and Road" is turning into the first overseas debt crisis for the Chinese Communist Party, with at least 18 of the "Belt and Road" countries receiving loans from the Chinese Communist Party in debt negotiations with Beijing, involving tens of billions of dollars in debt.
The report said that the CCP must consider the sustainability of the Belt and Road debt, otherwise it will have to bear the risk of these infrastructure projects, and thus fall into economic difficulties.
According to Boston University, the Communist Party's China Development Bank and China Export-Import Bank will lend $462 billion from 2008 to 2019, just slightly less than the World Bank's $467 billion.
Hillman, a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), a Washington think tank, said the Chinese Communist Party is in the wrong mode to expand its infrastructure abroad in order to expand its power.
He believes that Beijing is at the center of a debt crisis in developing markets if it is unable or unwilling to provide sufficient debt forgiveness to debtor countries.
Since Xi Jinping came to power, the Communist Party has promoted the "Belt and Road" project for foreign expansion. The "Belt and Road" is aimed at Europe, penetrating into Russia's neighboring regions, exporting capital and production capacity to developing countries in the third world, and luring small and medium-sized countries to cooperate with the CCP in the name of helping the infrastructure of the host countries, causing small and medium-sized countries participating in the "Belt and Road" to incur huge debts and be coerced by the CCP. They have been coerced by the Chinese Communist Party.
"The strategic intention behind the Belt and Road project is that if these countries cannot afford to pay their debts, they will have to provide natural resources or lease important ports to cover their debts. For example, Sri Lanka was forced to "lease" the deep-water port of Hambantota to the Chinese Communist Party for 99 years.
However, the Communist Party's "Belt and Road" spreading of money has also put itself in heavy debt. This year's outbreak of the CCP virus has hit the economies of many Belt and Road countries hard. Experts point out that once the debts of these countries become bad debts, the loss of the Chinese Communist Party's claims will be difficult to estimate.
According to an article in Hong Kong's Apple Daily, the Belt and Road is unsustainable, but the CCP has been unable to pull out of it. Small and medium-sized countries, seeing that the CCP's expansion is unsustainable, are happy to default on their debts, and the CCP has no choice but to swallow this bitter fruit.
The article points out that this is all the trouble caused by the CCP's foreign expansion. If Xi Jinping did not daydream of "building a community of human destiny," U.S.-China relations would not have deteriorated, and the "bad debt" of the Belt and Road could have been avoided. A single thought can cause endless harm, Xi's regret medicine, only to eat for a long time.