I’m not so sure the “thought leaders” are correct. These are the same people who told us that manufacturing didn’t matter. Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and Singapore all benefited from the international trading regime as did the US and the EU and we rarely heard them complain about that system. Perhaps because everyone benefited. 一帶一路百分百是為中國貨舖路，沒有別的用途. When countries like Pakistan start seeing their sovereignty and there economy compromised I think they will realize that the western rules were better than the Chinese ones.