Infrastructure spending on road project dries up

Metin Aktas/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images

Pakistani army members and Chinese staff pose for a photo during the opening of a trade project in Gwadar port, west of Karachi on November 13, 2016. The port is a key part of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor.

Pakistan is home to one of China’s central infrastructure schemes: a near $60 billion collection of land and sea projects known as the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC). But Chinese President Xi Jinping’s administration said it would halt funding for three major roads that are part of the corridor, Pakistani newspaper Dawn reported last week, citing an Islamabad official. Beijing will resume funding after it releases “new guidelines,” the newspaper said.

China’s foreign ministry and the CPEC secretariat have yet to respond to CNBC’s request for comment. If true, the news is proof of China’s unilateral management style, analysts said.

“What Beijing giveth, Beijing can also taketh away,” Ian Bremmer, president and founder of political consultancy Eurasia Group, wrote in a recent note. Unlike the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, another China-led program, Belt and Road projects “aren’t transparent or consensus driven,” he said.