MATASEVO, Montenegro — Two sleek new roads vanish into mountain tunnels high above a sleepy Montenegrin village, the unlikely endpoint of a billion-dollar project bankrolled by China that is threatening to derail the tiny country’s economy.
The government has already burnt through $944 million in Chinese loans to complete the first stretch of road, just 41 kilometers (25 miles), making it among the world’s most expensive pieces of tarmac.
Chinese workers have spent six years carving tunnels through solid rock and raising concrete pillars above gorges and canyons, but the road in effect goes nowhere.
Almost 130 kilometers still needs to be built at a likely cost of at least…
Keep on reading: Montenegro learns true cost of China-backed $1 billion road to nowhere