A paramilitary police officer stands guard in front of red flags at Tiananmen Square in Beijing, China, on Monday, March 2, 2015. Tomohiro Ohsumi | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Chinese President Xi Jinping's signature Belt and Road Initiative is now about far more than just infrastructure. The program began roughly six years ago with a focus on building out rail and maritime trade routes connecting China with central Asia, Europe and Africa. While critics have charged that the initiative is simply a branding exercise for Beijing to spread its global influence through lending — and the associated debt — for projects like ports and bridges, Xi has now made it clear he's aiming even further. That is, the second Belt and Road Forum that wrapped up this weekend in Beijing demonstrated that the China-led program now seeks to influence technology and governance around the world. "There will be a shift away from ... hard infrastructure projects," Tom Rafferty, principal economist for China at The Economist Intelligence Unit, said Friday. "(The Belt and Road is) going to have a broader range."

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In fact, Rafferty said, the Chinese leader demonstrated that he sees the program "as a China global governance initiative." Xi's speech at the forum's opening ceremony on Friday proclaimed that, through the Belt and Road, China would "strengthen cooperation in customs, taxation and audit oversight" and pursue cooperation on technological development. The joint communique released at the conclusion of the forum also said Belt and Road participants "aim to enhance connectivity among financial markets" and encourage the development of digital infrastructure. Although it's always been difficult to pin down the exact nature of the Belt and Road Initiative, the latest pronouncements indicate how Beijing is, as many had expected, using the program as a way to expand its global influence. "I think it is fair to say that the introductory phase of Belt and Road is over," Jacob Shapiro, director of analysis at online publication Geopolitical Futures, said in an email.