Abstract
This chapter reviews the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) in the greater Eurasian context by integrating economic, political and cultural aspects. This includes in particular strategic issues and core motives of China's leadership as well as aspects of critique from a European view. Europe's regions have to develop an encompassing and interdisciplinary expertise and must embed it in a greater European global strategy to properly deal with the challenges of the BRI.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
Xi Jinping’s original keynote speech “Working together to deliver a brighter future for Belt and Road cooperation” of April 26, 2019 can be found, in an official transcript by the Chinese authorities, here: https://www.npc.gov.cn/npc/c16175/201909/58541b5bd2fc416481919ec3d259a1e3/files/3aa8b87afc19439fb8a0550e50d0cb22.pdf.
References
Agence France-Presse. (2015, December 27). China officially ends one-child policy. South China Morning Post. Retrieved February, 25, 2018, from https://www.scmp.com/news/china/policies-politics/article/1895411/china-officially-ends-one-child-policy.
Akita, H. (2019, June 14). China is exporting AI-driven authoritarianism. Nikkei Asian Review. Retrieved September, 15, 2019 from https://asia.nikkei.com/Spotlight/Comment/China-is-exporting-AI-driven-authoritarianism.
A Surveillance Dystopia: Made in China, Exported Throughout the World. (2019, May 1). Vision Times. Retrieved October 15, 2019, from https://www.visiontimes.com/2019/05/01/a-surveillance-dystopia-made-in-china-exported-throughout-the-world.html.
Australia investigates alleged Chinese plot to install spy MP. (2019, November 25). BBC News. Retrieved November 27, 2019, from https://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-50541082.
Bartsch, B., & Laudien, A. S. (2019, September 2). Der Westen hat längst seine eigene “Seidenstraße” [The West has long had its own “Silk Road”]. Bertelsmann Stiftung. Retrieved September 12, 2019, from https://www.bertelsmann-stiftung.de/de/themen/aktuelle-meldungen/2019/september/der-westen-hat-laengst-seine-eigene-seidenstrasse/.
Benedikter, R., & Kofler, I. (2019, August 29). Globalization’s current transition phase: The 5 R’s. global-e, 12(36). Retrieved September 25, 2019, from https://www.21global.ucsb.edu/global-e/august-2019/globalization-s-current-transition-phase-5-r-s.
Bremmer, I. (2012). Every nation for itself: Winners and losers in a G-Zero world. New York: Penguin.
Bremmer, I., & Roubini, N. (2011). A G-Zero world. Foreign Affairs. Retrieved November 29, 2019, from https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/2011-01-31/g-zero-world.
China-Chile FTA. (2019). China FTA network. Retrieved from https://fta.mofcom.gov.cn/topic/enchile.shtml.
China: Der gefürchtete Partner. [China: The dreaded partner]. (2019, September 16). Tagesspiegel. Retrieved November 29, 2019, from https://interaktiv.tagesspiegel.de/lab/china-der-gefuerchtete-partner/.
China gibt „Internet Plus“-Aktionsplan zur Wachstumsstimulierung bekannt. [China Announces Internet Plus Action Plan to Stimulate Growth]. (2015, July 5). German.china.org.cn. Retrieved March 14, 2018, from https://german.china.org.cn/business/txt/2015-07/05/content_35984561.htm.
China is trying to turn itself into a country of 19 super-regions. (2018, June 23). The Economist. Retrieved June 15, 2019, from https://www.economist.com/china/2018/06/23/china-is-trying-to-turn-itself-into-a-country-of-19-super-regions.
China’s UK ambassador: Uighur camps leak is ‘fake news’. (2019, November 25). BBC News. [Video] Retrieved November 27, 2019, from https://www.bbc.com/news/av/world-asia-china-50550535/china-s-uk-ambassador-uighur-camps-leak-is-fake-news.
China’s yuan joins elite club of IMF reserve currencies. (2016, October 1). Reuters. Retrieved September 25, 2018, from https://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-currency-imf/chinas-yuan-joins-elite-club-of-imf-reserve-currencies-idUSKCN1212WC.
Data leak reveals how China ‘brainwashes’ Uighurs in prison camps. (2019, November 24). BBC News. Retrieved November 27, 2019, from https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-50511063.
Deutschland ist ein zu bereitwilliger Partner für Chinas Industriestrategie. (2019, July 2). Mercator institute for China studies. Retrieved October 29, 2019, from https://www.merics.org/de/china-flash/neue-merics-studie-zu-made-china-2025.
Diamond, L. (2019). The road to digital unfreedom: The threat of postmodern totalitarianism. Journal of Democracy, 30(1), 20–24.
Erste Container aus China erreichen Rügen. [First containers from China reach Rügen]. (2019, November 12). Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. Retrieved November 15, 2019, from https://www.faz.net/aktuell/neue-seidenstrasse-erste-container-aus-china-auf-ruegen-16482530.html.
Escribano, V., & Centeno, J. (2019, April 26). China promises new silk road will be cleaner and more transparent. EFE. Retrieved September 17, 2019, from https://www.efe.com/efe/english/portada/china-promises-new-silk-road-will-be-cleaner-and-more-transparent/50000260-3961496.
European Commission. (2018). Joint communication to the European parliamt, the council, the European economic and social committee, the committee of the regions and the European investment bank.—Connecting Europe and Asia—Building blocks for an EU strategy. Retrieved June 15, 2019, from https://eeas.europa.eu/sites/eeas/files/joint_communication_-_connecting_europe_and_asia_-_building_blocks_for_an_eu_strategy_2018-09-19.pdf.
European Commission. (2019, April 10). Screening of foreign direct investment—An Eu framework. https://trade.ec.europa.eu/doclib/docs/2019/february/tradoc_157683.pdf.
Exporting dystopia: China’s social credit system. (2018, October 7). CBC, the Weekly. [Video] Retrieved January 20, 2019, from https://www.cbc.ca/news/theweekly/exporting-dystopia-china-s-social-credit-system-the-weekly-1.4854165.
Feldstein, S. (2019, September). The global expansion of AI surveillance. Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Retrieved November 1, 2019, from https://carnegieendowment.org/files/WP-Feldstein-AISurveillance_final1.pdf.
Global News. (2019). Xi Jinping: China promises more transparency in the silk road initiative. (2019, April 26). Retrieved October 15, 2019, from https://www.globaldomainsnews.com/xi-jinping-china-promises-more-transparency-in-the-silk-road-initiative.
Grieger, G. (2018). China, the 16+1 format and the EU. EPRS, European Parliamentary Research Service PE 625.173. Retrieved June 15, 2019, from https://www.europarl.europa.eu/RegData/etudes/BRIE/2018/625173/EPRS_BRI(2018)625173_EN.pdf.
Hänel, L. (2019, June 6). Duisburg setzt auf die Supermacht China. [Duisburg relies on the superpower China]. DW. Retrieved November 15, 2019, from https://www.dw.com/de/duisburg-setzt-auf-die-supermacht-china/a-49140175.
Heimberger, P., Holzner, M., & Kochnev, A. (2018). A ‘European Silk Road’. Wiiw Research Report No. 430. Retrieved October 28, 2019, from https://wiiw.ac.at/a-european-silk-road-p-4608.html.
Huawei affair: German ‘insult’ on spying angers US. (2019, November 26). BBC News. Retrieved November 27, 2019, from https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-50557876.
Human Right Watch. (2019). China Events of 2018. World Report 2019. Retrieved November 29, 2019, from https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2019/country-chapters/china-and-tibet.
Janardhan, N. (2019, July 17). Belt and Road Initiative 2.0: ‘Qualitatively’ Different? The CSS Blog Network. Retrieved August 28, 2019, from https://isnblog.ethz.ch/economy/belt-and-road-initiative-2-0-qualitatively-different.
Jiao, W., & Yunbi, Z. (2013, September 8). Xi proposes a ‘New Silk Road’ with Central Asia. China Daily. Retrieved August 12, 2019, from https://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2013xivisitcenterasia/2013-09/08/content_16952228.htm.
Joint Communique of the Leaders Roundtable of the 2nd Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation. (2019, April 28). Belt & Road News. Retrieved June 15, 2019, from https://www.beltandroad.news/2019/04/28/joint-communique-of-the-leaders/.
Kellon, L. (2019, November 26). Teen’s TikTok video about China’s Muslim camps goes viral. BBC News. Retrieved November 27, 2019, from https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-50559656.
Kempe, F. (2019, April 14). The world China wants. Atlantic Council. Retrieved November 27, 2019, from https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/content-series/inflection-points/the-world-china-wants/.
Krahé, M., & Adler, D. (2019, November 26). Germany is damaging the European economy. The answer? Raise German wages. The Guardian. Retrieved November 27, 2019, from https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/nov/26/germany-damaging-european-economy-raise-german-wages.
Krugman, P. (2019, August 19). The world has a Germany problem the debt obsession that ate the economy. The New York Times. Retrieved August 25, 2019, from https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/19/opinion/trump-germany-europe.html.
Marques, D. (2019, April 2). The EU, China, and human rights in Xinjiang: Time for a new approach. European Council on Foreign relations. Retrieved November 24, 2019, from https://www.ecfr.eu/article/commentary_the_eu_china_and_human_rights_in_xinjiang_time_for_a_new_approach.
Maurice, E. (2017, June 26). China’s 16+1 foray into Central and Eastern Europe. Euobserver. Retrieved August 30, 2018, from https://euobserver.com/eu-china/138347.
Mazarr, M. J., Heath, T. R., & Cevallos, A. S. (2018). China and the international order. RAND Corporation. Retrieved June 29, 2019, from https://www.rand.org/content/dam/rand/pubs/research_reports/RR2400/RR2423/RAND_RR2423.pdf.
McDowell, D. (2019). The (Ineffective) financial statecraft of China’s bilateral swap agreements. Development and Change, 50(1), 122–143.
Migration in China. (n.d.). Wikipedia. Retrieved September 25, 2019, from https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Migration_in_China.
Miller, T. (2012). China’s urban billion. London/New York: Zed Books Ltd.
Mozur, P. (2018, July 8). Inside China’s dystopian dreams: A.I., Shame and lots of cameras. New York Times. Retrieved November 29, 2019, from https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/08/business/china-surveillance-technology.html.
Mozur, P., Kessel, J. M., & Chan, M. (2019, April 28). Made in China exported to the world: The surveillance state. New York Times. Retrieved November 29, 2019, from https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/24/technology/ecuador-surveillance-cameras-police-government.html
Müller, K. (2019, March 27). Letzter Halt Duisburg: Chinas Weltmacht-Pläne reichen bis in den deutschen Westen [Last stop Duisburg: China’s world power plans reach into the German West]. FOCUS Money Online. Retrieved June 25, 2019, from https://www.focus.de/finanzen/news/konjunktur/projekt-neue-seidenstrasse-letzte-haltestelle-duisburg-chinas-neue-weltmacht-plaene-reichen-bis-in-den-deutschen-westen_id_10511705.html.
Naisbitt, D., Naisbitt, J., & Brahm, L. (2019). Im Sog der Seidenstraße [In the maelstrom of the Silk Road]. Stuttgart: Langen Müller Verlag.
National Development and Reform Commission. (2015). Vision and actions on jointly building silk road economic belt and 21st-century maritime silk road. Retrieved June 24, 2019, from https://en.ndrc.gov.cn/newsrelease/201503/t20150330_669367.html.
NPC. (2019). Xi Jinping: Working together to deliver a brighter future for Belt and Road Cooperation. Speech full transcript. NPC, 2. Retrieved November 24, 2019, from https://www.npc.gov.cn/npc/c16175/201909/58541b5bd2fc416481919ec3d259a1e3/files/3aa8b87afc19439fb8a0550e50d0cb22.pdf.
Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften. (2018, October 25). Rom und China: Weltreiche als komplexe Netzwerke. Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften. Retrieved September 24, 2019, from https://www.oeaw.ac.at/detail/news/rom-und-china-weltreiche-als-komplexe-netzwerke/.
Rasch, M. (2019, November 21). Wie Duisburg zum Logistik-Drehkreuz und Endpunkt der neuen Seidenstraße wurde. [How Duisburg became the logistics hub and end point of the new shopping street]. Neue Zürcher Zeitung. Retrieved November 26, 2019, from https://www.nzz.ch/wirtschaft/duisburger-hafen-logistik-drehkreuz-fuer-die-neue-seidenstrasse-ld.1520603.
Reichelt, J. (2019, November 27). US national security advisor robert O’Brien “There is no distinction between the Communist Party and Huawei”. Bild. Retrieved November 28, 2019, from https://www.bild.de/politik/international/bild-international/us-national-security-advisor-robert-obrien-huawei-is-a-corrupt-state-enterprise-66308054.bild.html.
Rolley, C. (2019, May 7). Is Chinese-style surveillance coming to the west? The Guardian. Retrieved July 23, 2019, from https://amp.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/may/07/chinese-style-surveillance-exported-west.
Rupnik, J. (2018). Explaining Eastern Europe: The crisis of liberalism. The Journal of Democracy, 29(3), 24–38.
Shanshan, G. (2019, February 12). China’s central SOEs lead way in B&R construction. Xinhua Silk Road Information Service. Retrieved June 17, 2019, from https://eng.yidaiyilu.gov.cn/qwyw/rdxw/79294.htm. ews/china/policies-politics/article/1895411/china-officially-ends-one-child-policy.
Sitaraman, G. (2018, March 17). The three crises of liberal democracy. The Guardian. Retrieved December 28, 2018, from https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/mar/17/the-three-crises-of-liberal-democracy.
Skala-Kuhmann, A. (2019). European responses to BRI—An Overdue Assessment. Horizons, 14, 144–155.
The EBRD and BRI. (2019). European bank. Retrieved September 15, 2019, from https://www.ebrd.com/cs/Satellite?c=Content&cid=1395268041345&pagename=EBRD%2FContent%2FHublet.
UK urges China to give UN access to Xinjiang region. (2019, November 26). BBC News. Retrieved November 27, 2019, from https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-50551996.
UN Security Council Resolutions 2274. (2016, March 15). The situation in Afghanistan. Retrieved March 15, 2019, from https://unscr.com/en/resolutions/2274.
UN Security Council Resolutions 2344. (2017, March 17). The situation in Afghanistan. Retrieved March 15, 2019, from https://unscr.com/en/resolutions/2344.
UN Security Council Resolutions 2405. (2018, March 8). The situation in Afghanistan. Retrieved March 15, 2019, from https://unscr.com/en/resolutions/2405.
US Announces “Blue Dot Network” To Compete with China’s Belt and Road. (2019, November 5). SouthFront. Retrieved November 20, 2019, from https://southfront.org/us-announces-blue-dot-network-to-compete-with-chinas-belt-and-road/.
What is Blue Dot Network and is it really the West’s response to Belt & Road? (2019, November 10). Belt and Road News. Retrieved November 18, 2019, from https://www.beltandroad.news/2019/11/10/what-is-the-blue-dot-network-and-is-it-really-the-wests-response-to-belt-road-project/.
Wong, F. K. (2019, March 26). Xiong’an new area: President Xi’s dream city. China Briefing. Retrieved September 15, 2019, from https://www.china-briefing.com/news/xiongan-new-area-beijing-tianjin-hebei/.
Workman, D. (2019, October 14). Germany’s top trading partners. World’s Top Exports. Retrieved November 20, 2019, from https://www.worldstopexports.com/germanys-top-import-partners/.
Yau, E. (2019, November 3). How China’s traditional villages are falling victim to its global ambitions. Post Magazine. Retrieved November 5, 2019, from https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/long-reads/article/3035544/how-chinas-traditional-villages-are-falling.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2020 Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Benedikter, R., Nowotny, V. (2020). The New Silk Road and Europe’s Regions. On the Pros and Cons of Travelling China’s Roads. In: Pechlaner, H., Erschbamer, G., Thees, H., Gruber, M. (eds) China and the New Silk Road. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-43399-4_4
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-43399-4_4
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-43398-7
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-43399-4
eBook Packages: Economics and FinanceEconomics and Finance (R0)