China slams BRI 'smearing' after Italy withdrawal

BEIJING: China on Thursday slammed what it called the "smearing" of its Belt and Road infrastructure project after Italy said it would withdraw four years after it became the only G7 nation to sign up.

"China firmly opposes smearing and undermining of cooperation on the joint construction of the Belt and Road," foreign ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said. Beijing is also opposed to "confrontation and division among camps that causes separation", Wang added. The foreign ministry did not comment on Italy's decision to withdraw from Beijing's vast BRI project, a central pillar of President Xi Jinping's bid to expand China's clout overseas. But Wang pointed to the more than 150 participating countries as evidence of it being the " largest international cooperation platform in the world today".