China’s flagship foreign policy effort could reshape the world’s digital, trade, and transport networks and political ties for decades to come.
While much attention has been focused on economic coercion, inducements have also played an important role in China’s toolkit. Ramping up U.S. efforts at bilateral and multilateral economic engagement would provide more credible or appealing alternatives.
As China’s funding for infrastructure and other investments expands along its Belt and Road Initiative, its economic and political influence is growing in the Western Balkans, a strategically contested area on the EU’s periphery. This report, part of a two-year effort to track Chinese economic influence in the region, draws from a new CSIS dataset to identify key trends, including China’s geographic and sectoral priorities, low project completion rates, and an emerging second wave of digital investments.
China’s technology ambitions appeared imperiled by Covid-19, but the pandemic is already providing new opportunities for China’s rise as a technology power and global provider of digital infrastructure.
Beijing’s willingness to start new international institutions underscores its global ambitions and adds weight to its rhetoric about creating an alternative order, but it would be a mistake to exaggerate their current scale and effectiveness.
The China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), a flagship of China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) that was officially launched in April 2015, promised transformational gains. Five years later, a quarter of announced projects have been completed, energy projects dominate, and industrialization efforts are lagging, according to data collected by the CSIS Reconnecting Asia Project.