On July 1, a cargo train from western China reached Chancay, Peru — a symbolic milestone in Beijing’s quieter but sharper new global infrastructure strategy. As the Belt and Road Initiative evolves, ports, railways and data cables are replacing fanfare with functional dominance. Since late April, Guangzhou port has operated direct maritime routes to Chancay, slashing transport costs for Chinese and Latin American exporters by nearly 30 percent.

With shipping times reduced, this once-sleepy fishing village has morphed into a logistical pivot point — and the latest jewel in China’s infrastructure crown. COSCO Shipping, which owns a 60 percent stake in the Chancay port, has positioned the terminal as a regional logistics hub that will handle more than 1 million containers annually by 2030.

This is the new face of Beijing’s global strategy. Less about ribbon-cutting photo ops, more about rewiring the world.

Over a decade since Chinese President Xi Jinping launched the Belt and Road Initiative, China has recalibrated. The era of splashy megaprojects is giving way to a quieter, greener — and strategically sharper — phase. Smart ports in Latin America. Fiber-optic corridors in Africa. Mangrove restoration hubs in Southeast Asia. All bearing the stamp of Chinese capital, code and connectivity.

Call it Belt and Road 2.0. It’s smaller, but smarter. And it’s winning influence where traditional diplomacy is absent or distracted.

By 2023, trade between China and Belt and Road nations exceeded $19 trillion, according to Chinese state media. But numbers alone don’t tell the full story. China’s........

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