Reuters reports that China has never forced debt upon participants of its new Silk Road project as "prejudiced" critics have suggested, the country's top diplomat said on Saturday in a strongly worded defense of a key policy platform of President Xi Jinping...Speaking to the ruling Communist Party's official People's Daily, Yang Jiechi, who runs the party's foreign affairs committee, said he had noted that some in the international community believed this was a geopolitical tool and would only bring debt traps for participating countries. "This obviously shows a lack of objectivity and fair understanding of the Belt and Road initiative. It is a misunderstanding, misjudgment and is even prejudiced," wrote Yang, a former foreign minister and ambassador to Washington...China will hold its second Belt and Road summit in Beijing in late April...Some of China's closest allies have already confirmed they will come, including Russian President Vladimir Putin, Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan, Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte and Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen.