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A Belt and Road Decade? Charting the Diachronic and Exegetic Boundaries of China's Connectivity Discourse
[working paper]
Corporate Editor
OSCE Academy in Bishkek
Abstract Since its announcement in 2013, the Belt and Road Initiative has generated a prolific commentary in global news media and academia. Beyond merely chronicling China’s economic diplomacy in the developing world, a mixture of speculative analysis and ‘connectivity’ hyperbole has attempted to compensate... view more
Since its announcement in 2013, the Belt and Road Initiative has generated a prolific commentary in global news media and academia. Beyond merely chronicling China’s economic diplomacy in the developing world, a mixture of speculative analysis and ‘connectivity’ hyperbole has attempted to compensate for the lack of official guidance from Beijing. Hypotheses attempting to explain the proposed-scale and timing of the initiative have ranged from pragmatic evaluations of the domestic economic pressures facing the party leadership, to assumptions of geopolitical hegemony and the implied influence of the People’s Liberation Army. Chinese institutions have been key drivers of this media phenomenon but individual sub-narratives have also enjoyed their own impetus. Some of these build on pre-existing discursive trends that were globally-recognizable by the mid-2000s, some rely more on events unique to the Belt and Road Initiative and the international geopolitical context of the long decade that followed the Global Financial Crisis. This paper traces the evolution of this ‘Belt and Road Decade’ in media and academia, and presents the case for both its singularity, reliance on a broader zeitgeist and arguably, its expired utility for Beijing in the 2020s. The paper concludes by reconciling the optimism and scepticism of BRI punditry with the empirical markers for China’s development and foreign relations in the present day... view less
Keywords
international cooperation; international relations; economic development (on national level); Central Asia; foreign policy; economic relations; China; Far East
Classification
International Relations, International Politics, Foreign Affairs, Development Policy
Free Keywords
Belt and Road Initiative (BRI)
Document language
English
Publication Year
2022
City
Bishkek
Page/Pages
38 p.
Series
Research Paper / OSCE Academy in Bishkek, 6
Status
Published Version; reviewed