The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) has failed to demonstrate the win-win Beijing might have promised its recipient nations, but instead keeps attracting international criticism of China. With such existing problems as debt trap and sovereignty erosion, for the past year China has been domestically exposed to severe impacts from COVID and economic slowdown mainly due to tough measures against the pandemic. Externally, the impacts of U.S.-China trade war and “decoupling” has caused the BRI recipient nations to refrain from further participation. The Ukrainian war has inevitably hindered inter-state traffic and transportation for BRI. China’s appeasement of Russia and its infamous “wolf warrior diplomacy” has put Beijing in a bad light on the international stage and consequently constitutes extra negative influence on BRI. While China announced the Global Development Initiative (GDI), western nations also made plans that were obvious countermeasures directed at both GDI and BRI. Indeed, the abovementioned unfavorable internal and external environments that China is faced with have made the prospects of BRI gloomy.