China’s flagship foreign policy effort could reshape the world’s digital, trade, and transport networks and political ties for decades to come.
While China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) writ large has been slowing, a trend that predates the pandemic, its digital dimension is accelerating. The CSIS Reconnecting Asia Project and Economics Program look ahead at what is next for China’s BRI and four other emerging trends in 2021.
The Australian state of Victoria, which signed a Belt and Road MoU in 2018, has little to show from Chinese President Xi Jinping’s signature foreign policy vision.
A notorious ex-gangster from China is launching an $18 billion economic development zone in Myawaddy, Myanmar under the banner of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). But experts say the project’s plans are centered on illegal gambling. If true, this could spell trouble for Beijing.
The seizure of Chinese-run mines in Kyrgyzstan amid ongoing protests has highlighted the risks to business in region, fuelling China’s desire to promote its private security companies (PSCs). But if Chinese PSCs continue to expand operations, Sinophobic sentiments—already widespread across the region—may spark a cycle of escalating securitization that will undermine China’s long-term interests.
On September 29, CSIS hosted an online discussion of Jonathan Hillman’s new book on China’s Belt and Road Initiative, The Emperor’s New Road: China and the Project of the Century, moderated by Axios China reporter Bethany Allen-Ebrahimian. Hillman recounts his journey to China’s projects in Asia, Europe, and Africa to reveal the global risks lurking within Beijing’s project of the century.