Review of the book "Belt and Road: A Chinese world order"

Abstract

The purpose of the Belt and Road initiative is to create a new financial, political, cultural, and economic order from Lisbon to Jakarta. With its epicenter in China, it aspires to reshape the existing world order in the short to medium term. Although some richer countries like the United States will retain part of their old power, more countries in this new world order will become prosperous and interdependent. Methodologically, this book uses aspects of world-system analysis: countries participating in chains of value-added market economies, with the help of the state, are going to produce a more prosperous and coordinated world. Chapter 1 outlines the political initiatives that led to the Belt and Road Initiative and highlights the gaps that it must address to generate development in Eurasia, Latin America, and Australia. First, it explains how the policies of Deng Xiaoping made China's development possible: by negotiating with the United States during the 1970s, China was able to obtain fixed capital and technological capabilities. Second, it explains how China’s capacity production must supply the demand of other countries, for the development of peripheral economies will maintain external demand for Chinese products and supply China with raw materials such as oil and gas. Third, the new world order will be established according to the command of global chains of value-added exports with China retaining, in the future, the central chains.