The Belt and Road Initiative as Epochal Regionalisation

Description

The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), launched by China in 2013, carries and projects powerful regional dimensions and transformations, with short- and long-term global, national and local consequences. The BRI’s regional significance lies in its designation and creation of several cross-border corridors that originate from inside China and extend out into its neighbouring countries, and those farther afield in Asia, Africa and Europe. Through driving and facilitating new trade and infrastructure connections along and beyond these corridors, the BRI has begun to reshape the master processes of globalisation, urbanisation and development by affecting the economic, social and spatial fortunes of many countries and cities. This book serves two purposes. First, through a new framework and three case studies, it examines the BRI’s impacts on globalisation, urbanisation and development via the China-Europe Freight Train, the paired construction of a new city and railway across the China-Laos borderland and the port-park-city development corridor between Djibouti and Ethiopia. Second, the comparative analysis and evidence guide the book to advance policy recommendations for targeted stakeholders that can potentially turn the BRI into a global public good with greater benefits and fewer risks. Cover Title Page Copyright Page Contents Foreword Preface Authors Acknowledgements Abbreviations Executive summary 1. The BRI and regionalisation 1.1 Introduction 1.2 The BRI as new regionalisation 1.3 The BRI from China’s regional perspective 1.4 How to unpack the BRI’s regional impacts 1.5 Summary 2. The BRI and globalisation 2.1 Introduction 2.2 Shifting globalisation and China’s importance 2.3 The West- versus China-led globalisations 2.4 Regional corridors’ connective global impact: The China–Europe Freight Train (CEFT) 2.4.1 Connections and growth 2.4.2 Xi’an’s resurgence as a hub 2.5 Summary and policy recommendations 3. The BRI and urbanisation 3.1 Introduction 3.2 The BRI’s infrastructure reach and power 3.3 China’s urbanisation: infrastructure as the key 3.4 Building out: Borten on the China–Laos border 3.4.1 A new city as embedded infrastructure 3.4.2 An ambitious railway as connective infrastructure 3.5 In the shadow of infrastructure-led urbanisation 3.6 Summary and policy recommendations 4. The BRI and development 4.1 Introduction 4.2 Recasting development: aligning the United Nations’ Development Goals and the BRI 4.3 Building Africa’s industrial landscape 4.3.1 The “Port-Park-City” mode of development: from Shekou to Djibouti 4.3.2 China-driven zone-centric mode of development in Ethiopia 4.3.3 Unlocking landlocked exports through the Addis Ababa-Djibouti railway 4.4 Summary and policy recommendations 5. A synthesis and looking forward 5.1 Introduction 5.2 From a single initiative to a synergistic force 5.3 Can the BRI become a regional and a global public good? Appendix A: The bottom billion lag and BRI countries by income levels