It is natural that it is slowing down. The external environment has changed. Economic growth is slowing down, debt is going up, and Chinese leaders are now develeraging away from debt and too much credit growth
In addition with the strategic competition now on-going vs the US, it is much more urgent to divert some BRI funds to internal investment in order to accelerate China's development
I dont see this as a bad thing. I firmly believed that the BRI was obviously overxtended and it grew too much for China to support it sustainably.
Much better to focus this investment on key China's allies, friends, and important key countries.
There were also not well organised institutions for the BRI.
For example, A Green Road did not do much (support green development), Health Road (had to wait for covid to happen..), Digital Sil road was too late to ramp up, Education exchanges not set up clearly etc
The whole plan was too much of case by case deals and not as a part of clear rules and institutions. Better for China to scale it down for now, reform it, and focus the investments much better.
Anyway, the BRI is here to stay. Maybe it will be scaled down now, then scaled up, then down, then up etc. IMO the most important thing us to create a stable framework, institutions and rules on how future investments will be handled
