Whether or not one calls it the new ‘Silk Road’ , ‘One Belt One Road’, the ‘Belt and Road Initiative’, or even just by its acronym–‘BRI’–there is little doubt five years after President Xi Jinping initially championed this ‘project of the Century’, that it has assumed enormous importance: first for China itself for whom it has become the centrepiece of its foreign policy strategy; secondly for the wider Eurasian region including of course Russia and Central Asia; and finally for the ASEAN countries themselves. For Southeast Asia as a whole the ‘BRI’ presents enormous economic opportunities. Yet, as a number of the contributors here point out, there are some really big challenges too.
If one can, to use the jargon, improve ‘connectivity’ with infrastructure development, then all well and good. Everyone will be a winner. On the other hand, if China simply uses the BRI - as one of the contributors here fears it might - to ensnare countries into dependent and unequal relationships, then some difficult days lay ahead. Few would question China’s right to having a seat (and a very big one at that) at the high table of international politics. Indeed, some would insist that in the absence of American leadership, the only option now is for China to take the lead. The key question, then, is not should it lead: it is bound to (to paraphrase Nye), but rather how well will it do so in the years ahead? As the joint editor of this informative report astutely points out, reactions to the BRI outside China have been mixed to say the least,
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