Abstract
China’s Belt and Road Initiative: Changing the Rules of Globalization is a well-crafted interdisciplinary anthology on the origin, scope, impact and future of the China-led ‘Belt and Road Initiative’ (BRI). This is a splendid and highly readable tour de force, arguably the best book yet on the issue of BRI. As a leading book in this field, China’s Belt and Road Initiative embodies academic rigour, comprehensive coverage and insightful forecast. Over 30 scholars with roots in five continents—Asia, America, Africa, Europe and Oceania—contributed to this collective undertaking. The book strives to answer the questions of what is BRI, how it was born, and where it may be heading. The book also addresses the quintessential questions why BRI matters and how BRI is creating a new wave of globalization.
As a salient book, included in the Palgrave Studies of Internationalization in Emerging Markets, China’s Belt and Road Initiative strives to catch the essence of the ever expanding BRI. This is a timely book about BRI by a team of experts from diverse areas ranging from geopolitical, economic, management and communication domains. With multiple lenses of analysis, authors in this book broadly delineated the current profiles and future directions of BRI. The book begins with setting the context of BRI, from the aftermath of the 2008 global financial crisis to WTO’s Doha Development Round breakdown, to the collapse of Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), to the rise of ‘Brexit’ and ‘America First’, and to Donald Trump’s promise to ‘Make America Great Again’ (MAGA). Against the surge of isolationism around the world, China emerges as the new leader of globalism by promoting and implementing BRI.
In recent years, ‘China Studies’ has emerged as its own discipline rather than just an umbrella term for many different, but rarely connected, research agendas. The growth of China Studies reflects the rise of China in its economic, military and cultural might. BRI serves as a comprehensive platform for China Studies. Across 17 substantive chapters, this book sets out to build a conceptual and theoretical inventory for the study of BRI.
As organizers of the influential annual China Goes Global conference, the editors of this book, Drs. Zhang, Alon and Lattermann, accurately touch the pulse of BRI. They artfully arranged the 17 chapters into three sections to present BRI in contextual, geopolitical and economic perspectives. The BRI, also known as One Belt One Road (OBOR) Initiative (一带一路) or New Silk Road (新丝绸之路), was proposed by Chinese President Xi Jinping in 2013, during visits to Kazakhstan and Indonesia. By linking over 100 countries, along a land-based Silk Road Economic Belt (BRI by land), an ocean-going 21st century Maritime Silk Road (BRI by sea) and even an air-based connection with the Americas (BRI by air), BRI supports various infrastructure projects in countries around the world, totalling more than $1 trillion US dollars. BRI is a massive project involving the funding and construction of an infrastructure system of roads, railways, oil and natural gas pipelines, fibre-optic and communication systems, ports and airports. Although some use ‘Marshall Plan’ as a reference point to understand BRI projects around the world, Chinese President Xi Jinping dislikes this comparison, stating that BRI is not a Chinese conspiracy, nor a geopolitical strategy or threat. Instead, President Xi presents BRI as the international public goods offered by China to the world. This book points out that with BRI, China is leading a new wave of globalization, one that may be less imperialistic and more pragmatic, less unilateral and more multilateral. While telling nostalgic stories about travellers on camels in Gobi Desert, Chinese government and media frame BRI as a vehicle to reinvent the ancient Silk Road to replicate the Chinese economic miracle and to share the Chinese Dream with the rest of the world in Globalization 5.0.
Since the introduction of BRI in 2013, international scholars have been studying this new policy and its implications in the global age. While BRI provides obvious opportunities for China in terms of regional cooperation and global development, many also raise concerns about China’s intentions of using economic means to achieve strategic economic and geopolitical objectives. Some scholars argue BRI as essentially a new global architecture designed by China in order to frame its new role as a leading world power whereas others view BRI as a far more comprehensive strategy for China, with coordination from policy to trade, from financial cooperation to people exchange. Hailing from the West and the East, the authors in this book reflect on the wide-ranging impacts of BRI on specific countries, regions, economic policies and geopolitical considerations. Including both theoretical research and empirical studies that explore opportunities and challenges related to BRI, this edited volume will allow readers to gain a more comprehensive understanding of this ambitious undertaking and its long-term impact on the rest of the world. In this book, authors from the East and the West present the most prominent facets of the BRI from geopolitical, economic, business, legal and social lenses. Over 30 scholars with roots in five continents analyse the BRI and provide insights to the past, present and future of the BRI and its impact on the world economy, regions and specific countries along the BRI. The authors claim that BRI is among the largest and most important global institution affecting the world in the 21st century. China’s leadership will be tested through BRI. The tacit social contract behind the free-trade agreements (FTAs), finance arrangements and the BRI with China will be challenged. Chinese President Xi describes BRI as a massive infrastructure project to revive the ancient Silk Road, to share the ‘Chinese Dream’ and to expand Chinese economic miracles to the rest of the world.
Sharing insights from years of research, the authors in this book posit that the basic idea of BRI is to consolidate and upgrade a dense network of bilateral FTAs into a multilateral arrangement, anchored by China’s gravitational pull and vast open market. The BRI focuses on using the ‘belt’ to link China to Europe through Central Asia and Russia; to Middle East through Central Asia; and to Southeast Asia, South Asia and the Indian Ocean. The ‘road’, meanwhile, aims to connect China with Europe through the South China Sea and the Indian Ocean; and with the South Pacific Ocean through the South China Sea. Covering over 65 countries and reaching more than 60 per cent of the global population, accounting for nearly a third of global GDP and of global merchandise trade and 75 per cent of its known energy reserves, BRI is the most ambitious example of global economic statecraft in the 21st century.
Despite BRI being a moving target, the book certainly suits a variety of educational and informative contexts for researchers, policymakers and practitioners alike. The book offers multiple academic frames for researchers, future forecast for policymakers and in-depth account for practitioners. Although consensus has not been reached about the definition, impact and future of BRI among scholars around the world, the major impact of BRI is generally assumed, including interregional cooperation, inclusive participation and a new era of globalization. ‘China is a sleeping giant. Let her sleep, for when she wakes, she will move the world’. You may gain a new understanding on the prophecy by Napoleon Bonaparte while reading this book.
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