China’s foreign policy in the Global Economy – Focus on the Belt and Road Initiative and US-China confrontation

Hitoshi Hirakawa

Japanese Economy, 2024, vol. 50, issue 3-4, 374-401

Abstract: More than ten years have passed since China’s President Xi Jinping launched the “Belt and Road” Initiative (BRI) in 2013. During this time, in the United States, President Trump came to power in 2017, and openly initiated a state-to-state conflict between the US and China. This conflict, in turn, heightened mutual distrust in US-China relations, which was further exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic and the subsequent China policy of the Biden administration. As the US pursues a decoupling policy toward China, and China adopts “wolf-warrior diplomacy,” the importance of the BRI for China has grown. As for the evaluation of the BRI, there is a big difference. While some observers have focused on China’s international contributions, others emphasized China’s hegemonic intentions. It was not until the end of the 2010s that the complete picture of the BRI began to become clear. Since 2018, a critical view and concerns over the BRI, such as its being a “debt trap” have rapidly spread. Although it cannot be denied that there is certainly such an aspect, it does not present a complete picture. The BRI is in opposition to the development policies of the World Bank, the IMF, and mainstream economics. It has also begun to create new structures in global politics and economics. This paper clarifies the actual state of China’s BRI in relation to the changes in the international environment surrounding it, identifies its characteristics, challenges, and problems, and offers a perspective on the near future from a viewpoint of the global political economy.

Date: 2024
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DOI: 10.1080/2329194X.2024.2431979

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