When China signed up to build Venezuela’s Tinaco-Anaco Railway in 2009, the scheme was hailed as proof of the effectiveness of socialist brotherhood. Gleaming new Chinese trains were envisaged, whisking passengers and cargo along at 137mph on about 300 miles of track. Hugo Chávez, the late Venezuelan president, called the $800m project “socialism on rails” and said the air-conditioned carriages would be available to everyone, rich or poor.
But the endeavour has become what locals call a “red elephant”, the vandalised and abandoned symbol of Venezuela’s deepening economic crisis. A slogan written in Chinese characters on an archway into a deserted construction site has taken on an ironic tone. “Dare to leap ahead,” it says.
For China, the project represents more than just an isolated example of a dream turned to dust. Over the past decade, the country has transformed itself from a marginal presence to the dominant player in international development finance with a loan portfolio larger than all six western-backed multilateral organisations put together. Outstanding loans from the two big Chinese “policy” banks and 13 regional funds are well in excess of the $700bn owed to the western-backed institutions, according to a recent study.