Yahoo Finance

This post has been updated.

The U.S. is trying to catch up with China’s massive Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) with a new project that one expert says will be “a legacy of the administration.”

With the creation of a new taxpayer-funded entity called the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation (DFC), which some experts hail as “the most important piece of U.S. soft power legislation in more than a decade,” America is on track to counter China’s colossal project known as the New Silk Road.

“The Belt and Road has really turned into a major focal point for the U.S.,” Andrew Small, senior transatlantic fellow on the Asia program at the German Marshall Fund of the United States, told Yahoo Finance. “The problem has been that [U.S. agencies] haven't really had the means to mobilize resources to compete.”

China’s BRI, envisioned as the revival of an ancient trading route between Asia and Europe, has been plugging away since its President, Xi Jinping, announced its launch in 2013. Beyond infrastructure projects like ports and highways, the initiative as seen as one of several ways that China is asserting itself on the world stage.

A recent report by U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission stated that in the past year, “Beijing also expanded its global promotion of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), increasing military cooperation and exporting its censorship and surveillance technologies to countries under BRI auspices.”

The report also added: “China’s BRI has emerged as the clearest organizing concept behind the PLA’s expanding overseas presence, although the PLA’s exact role in providing security for BRI is not yet known.”

The effort brought countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America, as well as several parts of Central Europe into China’s orbit. Some countries have already kowtowed to Chinese demands, such as not recognizing Taiwan’s independent status. Many others are left with unrealistic levels of debt that they’re unable to repay, such as Sri Lanka, Pakistan and Montenegro.

‘Think of us as an investment bank’

Over the last few years, “the U.S. was inclined to not pay the Belt and Road so much attention,” Small explained. “I think China had kind of hoped that they might be able to engage the U.S. on the Belt and Road somewhat more actively.”

Responding to growing criticism over the BRI, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross confirmed in early November that the U.S. will invest and trade more in Asia in an attempt to counter the project. Ross also laid out an initiative called the “Blue Dot Network” which would essentially “evaluate and certify nominated infrastructure projects” based on commonly accepted standards. That move aims to address concerns about the sustainability of China’s projects.