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The New Silk Roads: Defining China’s Grand Strategy

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The Belt and Road Initiative

Abstract

The chapter analyses China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) as Beijing’s grand strategy to assert and legitimate its foreign policy objective of becoming world leader by 2049. Despite Chinese rhetoric about BRI being a project that will benefit the international community and which is in line with the current international order, realpolitik factors inform and drive the project, as China reinforces its exports, increases its sphere of influence, and increasingly sets tomorrow’s norms. In doing so, China projects an image of a country with the objective and power resources of a great power that is ready and willing to take the lead in international affairs. The chapter argues that China mobilizes and operationalizes all the dimensions of power to implement its grand strategy and achieve its aim. Thus, coercion, threats, predatory economics, soft power projection, norms contestation and rules- and institution-building are concealed by social and discursive power of cooperation and connectedness.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    It is arguable that some countries have very limited foreign policy objectives vis-à-vis the global international system, other than ensuring that the order guarantees their survival—one of the few objectives that is common to all countries.

  2. 2.

    As a normative power, the United States has endorsed the role of norm-setter; yet, they have not automatically followed and abided by these norms. This behaviour is a source of tension with their followers and contenders, as they are accused of double standard or hypocrisy in their foreign policy.

  3. 3.

    While Western culture favours games such as chess, which postulates a direct confrontation aimed at the defeat of the opponent, the Asian culture, particularly Chinese, favours a more indirect approach. In the game of Go, the actions appear at first sight unrelated, while the logic of the action is revealed later, through the junctions of the actions. Success is not achieved in one fell swoop or through one movement; it is the result of a multitude of actions with varied objectives, but in the service of a grand strategy. Moreover, victory does not result in uncontested domination but rather in an advantageous sharing of the territory (acquisition of areas of influence). The emphasis is on relational strategies rather than confrontational strategies (Struye de Swielande 2011). The game of chess attempts to reduce uncertainty, while the game of Go “recognizes and accepts it”. The Go player will consider the Shi—the momentum, knowing that he cannot control everything and that uncertainty must be accepted and therefore taken into consideration in adjusting one’s strategy (Chen 2015, p. 80).

  4. 4.

    China currently aims to reinforce its partnership with Russia through supporting several international questions, and, among other things, by sealing contracts on gas (see the two deals signed in 2014 for about 800 billion dollars).

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Université Catholique de Louvain, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium

    Tanguy Struye de Swielande & Dorothée Vandamme

  2. Université de Mons, Mons, Belgium

    Dorothée Vandamme

Authors
  1. Tanguy Struye de Swielande
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  2. Dorothée Vandamme
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Tanguy Struye de Swielande .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. City University of Macau, Macau SAR, China

    Francisco José B. S. Leandro

  2. Research Centre in Political Science, University of Minho, Braga, Portugal

    Paulo Afonso B. Duarte

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de Swielande, T.S., Vandamme, D. (2020). The New Silk Roads: Defining China’s Grand Strategy. In: Leandro, F., Duarte, P. (eds) The Belt and Road Initiative. Palgrave Macmillan, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-2564-3_1

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