Founded in 1872 as the China Merchants Steam Navigation Company in Shanghai, the firm has developed into one of China's leading SOEs since the 1980s and has expanded its global role as a result of China's Belt and Road Initiative in the early 2010s. In the Western media, China Merchants Group is mostly known for being criticized as a tool for China's alleged debt-trap diplomacy[2][3] and its legal disputes with DP World, another port operator, regarding concession rights at the Port of Djibouti.[4]