Official Chinese data also indicates that BRI spending is down, amounting to contracts worth $36.2 billion signed during the first five months of 2018 — 6% less than during the same period in 2017.

Such activity was also down during the first five months of 2017 compared to the same period of 2016, and official figures show that Chinese firms are still finishing projects at close to the same rate that they're signing onto new ones, indicating the BRI push may just be falling into a more normal rhythm.

Concrete numbers for BRI projects are hard to pin down, according to Jonathan Hillman, a fellow at the Center for International and Strategic Studies in Washington, DC, but the decline reflected in the figures cited by The Times could be driven by several factors emerging both at home and abroad.