Demystifying the Belt and Road Initiative: China’s domestic and non-strategic policy?

2021 ◽  
pp. 205789112110388
Author(s):  
Yuan Jiang

The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) is a central policy of the Chinese government. The initiative is directly associated with President Xi Jinping, who first put forward the BRI in Kazakhstan and Indonesia in 2013, initially as One Belt One Road. Different from repetitive literature that concludes the BRI as China's global strategy, this article makes a contribution to argue that the BRI is China's domestic and non-strategic policy. To justify this argument, this article analyses how the BRI has been embedded into aspects of Chinese domestic policy by revealing its nexuses with Chinese domestic economy, politics and ideology. To deepen the understanding of the BRI's connection with the Chinese economy, this article explores the link between the BRI and China's supply-side structural reform. Meanwhile, this research demystifies the BRI as a global strategy and the difference between joining and rejecting the BRI to prove the BRI's non-strategic essence. In the end, this article discusses the BRI's far-reaching geopolitical influence.


2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 193 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anna Visvizi ◽  
Miltiadis D. Lytras ◽  
Peiquan Jin

Building on the tradition, promises, and advances brought by the historical Silk Road, the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), launched by the Chinese government in 2013, has a profound impact on international business and the established forms of international collaboration. Exploiting the advantages of liberalization of trade in goods, services, capital, and public procurement, BRI will benefit the Chinese economy. At the same time, it will prompt substantial changes in the field of international business, e.g., by means of fostering business to business (B2B) and peer to peer (P2P) collaboration. It will also influence patterns of Outward Foreign Direct Investment (OFDI). Geography plays a role in BRI; geopolitics is also in the cards. Given the profound implications BRI is likely to generate in the fields of businesses, economy, society, and politics, it is imperative to frame and streamline the discussion to identify the key mechanisms and causal relationships that it induces. This is precisely what this Special Issue sought to do.



Author(s):  
Mavidkhaan Baasandulam

Since 1978, China's economy has opened to the world. Over the past 40 years, China’s capital stock has grown at an annual rate of 6.9%. China began to implement the “Going out” policy in 2002, mainly to promote its overseas investment activities. The Chinese government launched a rescue plan of 4 trillion yuan in 2008, hoping to shift from export led growth to promote the expansion of the internal market. In this paper, China imports to Mongolia have increased year by year, accounting for 33.5% of its imports in 2018. China has pledged to invest globally by 1.25 trillion USD in 2025, and has increased investment in Mongolian mineral deposits. When the Chinese economy was in the “New Normal”, it proposed the “Belt and Road” initiative. To strengthen the connection between the “Belt and Road” and the “Steppe Silk Road” initiative, 32 projects will be implement in Mongolia. After reform and opening up, China has made great achievements. But, the upgrading of industrial structure and technological progress are still slow, economic growth continues to slow down, the aging population is becoming more serious, and the production capacity is seriously surplus. From Mongolia, there are abundant natural resources, and the mining industry is driving economic growth. The economic growth rate is relatively fast, but the industrial structure is single, the evolution of the industrial technology system is stagnation, and the human resources are insufficient, resulting in excessive dependence on foreign trade. The economic situation depends on the neighboring countries, the inflation is serious, and the unemployment rate remains high. Therefore, under such circumstances, China and Mongolia should make good use of the geographical advantages of their neighbors, enhance mutual trust, strengthen economic trade cooperation, maintain the unity of their countries and maintain the strategic balance of international power and jointly create political mutual trust and economic cooperation. This paper takes China Mongolian cooperation as the main research line, and explores new ways for economic and trade cooperation to promote the upgrading of industrial structure and sustained economic growth of the two countries. In addition, as the main component of the “Belt and Road” initiative, Mongolia strengthens economic and trade cooperation with China and promotes the improvement of the level of cooperation between the two countries, and can also achieve long term common development.



2018 ◽  
Vol 01 (01) ◽  
pp. 1850006
Author(s):  
Jingyan Fu

Building a green supply chain in the countries along the “Belt and Road Initiative” (BRI) route will not only generate huge economic and ecological benefits, it will also profit people in these countries and encourage the people in these countries to identify with the BRI as well as advance the development of this Initiative. Therefore, this research suggests the Chinese government taking the lead in jointly building a green supply chain with countries along BRI after the “Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation” in July 2017.



Author(s):  
Jie Gao

Chapter 9 explores the roles of Sino–foreign education partnerships (SFEP) within China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), in particular, how it has been shifted from a strategic tool to reform and upgrade China’s domestic higher education sector, to becoming a diplomatic instrument for building connections between China and the regions and countries along the BRI routes. The history of the development of SFEP reveals how policy and regulation have evolved. The shifting paradigm of the Chinese government, through its MOE (Ministry of Education), in regulating SFEP provides a window into the grand transformation of China’s narrative towards its position in the global education hierarchy. China is shifting from the follower/importer of “advanced foreign educational programs,” to a proactive player that builds a platform and framework for educational collaboration in the world. Now, China is becoming an initiator/exporter of its own educational programs and culture along the belt and road.



Entropy ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 20 (9) ◽  
pp. 718 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hao Liao ◽  
Xiao-Min Huang ◽  
Alexandre Vidmer ◽  
Yi-Cheng Zhang ◽  
Ming-Yang Zhou

The Belt and Road initiative (BRI) was announced in 2013 by the Chinese government. Its goal is to promote the cooperation between European and Asian countries, as well as enhancing the trust between members and unifying the market. Since its creation, more and more developing countries are joining the initiative. Based on the geographical location characteristics of the countries in this initiative, we propose an improvement of a popular recommendation algorithm that includes geographic location information. This recommendation algorithm is able to make suitable recommendations of products for countries in the BRI. Then, Fitness and Complexity metrics are used to evaluate the impact of the recommendation results and measure the country’s competitiveness. The aim of this work is to provide countries’ insights on the ideal development direction. By following the recommendations, the countries can quickly increase their international competitiveness.



2019 ◽  
Vol 4 (4) ◽  
pp. 291-304
Author(s):  
Gökçe Özsu ◽  
Ferruh Mutlu Binark

Turkey and China are the countries that established their relations in the shadow of their ideological affiliation. Turkey constructed its multi-partied democratic regime as an implementation of Western-based democracy. However, this has not granted EU full-membership to the country, and Turkey has initiated alternative allies since mid 2000s. This shift of axis has turned into more enthusiasm after the failed coup d’état of 15 July 2016. The purpose of this study is to reveal how Turkish mainstream newspapers represent the Chinese alternative globalization project, “The Belt and Road Initiative” which was introduced in 2013 by General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party, Xi Jinping. In order to frame the background information, we will first introduce the aims of the Belt and Road Initiative, and then summarize Turkey’s relation to China from two aspects: political and economic concerns. Following the overview of Turko-Sino relationship, we will focus on the Justice and Development Party’s foreign policy to grasp its pragmatic concern in relation to the Belt and Road Initiative. Based on the contextualization of Turko-Sino relations, we will conduct thematic content analysis of the news on the Belt and Road Initiative from May to July 2017 in mainstream Turkish newspapers. Our analysis brings into question how Turkish press relocates the Belt and Road Initiative with respect to Turkey’s political and economic concerns about China’s alternative globalism, Turkish foreign policy seeking for new allies as alternatives for the Western counterparts, and thus we will examine President Erdoğan’s influence on Turkish foreign policy. Based on our findings, we will discuss the reasons for insufficient coverage of the Belt and Road Initiative in Turkish mainstream newspapers.



2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 175-193 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mesafint Tarekegn Yalew ◽  
Guo Changgang

This article analyses the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and its implications for landlocked Ethiopia. Primary and secondary data sources are used to solicit viable information. The BRI is aimed to enhance policy coordination, financial integration, promote trade and investment, cultural exchanges and people-to-people relations across a wide geographical area involving Asia, Europe and Africa. The BRI is the next step in China’s global strategy after the reform and opening-up period, and it is important for job creation, infrastructural development, trade and investment and other related developments for landlocked least developing countries such as Ethiopia. For instance, the construction of the early BRI project of Addis Ababa–Djibouti railway has reduced transport costs and shortened the transport time from 3 days to 10 hours. Besides, the establishment of the East African Free Trade Agreement (FTA) at Djibouti by the Chinese government to facilitate trade in the region. Cumulatively, the BRI contributes to the growth of trade and investment opportunities for landlocked Ethiopia in terms of financing, infrastructure development and regional integration.



Subject The future of China's One Belt One Road initiative. Significance China convened the first summit of the Belt and Road Initiative (previously known as 'One Belt One Road', OBOR) on May 14-15. With this major diplomatic event, President Xi Jinping aimed to showcase and buttress international support for his central foreign policy initiative, the success of which will hinge on the participation of other countries, regional organisations and international financial institutions. Their contribution, or lack thereof, will affect the nature of OBOR and determine the impact of the Chinese initiative on Asia’s infrastructure connectivity and economic system, as well as on the international order. Impacts Cooperation between China and multilateral development banks may increase the number of OBOR projects with competitive procurement. Plans for OBOR’s corridors may be altered to accommodate competing visions for Asia’s connectivity, such as Russia’s. The Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank may more formally align its mandate with OBOR’s.



2021 ◽  
Vol 65 (8) ◽  
pp. 81-89
Author(s):  
M. Potapov ◽  
N. Kotlyarov

The article is analyzing the positions of China in global capital markets, and the factors that determine them. It shows the trends and features of attracting foreign direct investment in China, exporting Chinese capital abroad, attracting portfolio investments to China. The investment aspects of the Chinese Belt and Road Initiative and the role of Hong Kong as an international financial center are also considered. The evolution of the currency market regulation in China and the dynamics of the Yuan exchange rate, as well as the internationalizing of the Chinese currency and its use in cross-border operations are also discussed. The authors believe that the prospects for strengthening China’s position in the global capital markets will be determined by a number of circumstances, including the dynamics of the world economy, the growth rate of the Chinese economy, and the consistent liberalization of conditions for cross-border capital movement in China. The maintaining of higher growth rates of the Chinese economy in the context of the global recession and the coronavirus pandemic, as well as the ongoing liberalization of the domestic capital markets, suggest that the Chinese economy will remain attractive for foreign investors. The export of Chinese direct investment abroad will be largely determined by the dynamics of the country’s foreign trade, national restrictions on the export of capital, the implementing the Belt and Road Initiative and the position of China’s leading economic partners, primarily the United States, towards Chinese investment. At the same time, increased geopolitical and country risks will affect the geographical structure of China’s investment abroad in the direction of enhancing cooperation with Asian countries and participants of the Belt and Road Project. In the context of aggravated relations with the United States, China will make efforts to reduce dependence on the US dollar in settlements. Further steps will also be taken to internationalize the Chinese national currency and to achieve an increase in the use of RMB in payments. The lifting of restrictions on cross-border portfolio investments in the PRC is predetermined by ensuring the domestic macroeconomic stability, strengthening the financial system, low inflation, affordable credit, a stable balance of payments, and sufficient foreign exchange reserves. China’s real entry into the world’s leaders, both in the global commodity and capital markets, requires the creation of its own technological base, the transition to a new energy-saving, environmental-friendly national economic structure based on knowledge and new technologies, balancing the development levels of the country’s regions, and increasing the average per capita income of people.



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