China’s Belt and Road Initiative and Its Prospect

Xi Jinping was inaugurated as President at the 12th National People’s Congress held in March 2013. In September and October of the very same year, he advocated the “Silk Road Economic Belt” and the “21st Century Maritime Silk Road”. These two initiatives were adopted as national strategies in the 3rd meeting of the 18th Central Committee of the Communist Party in November of the same year. In the next year, President Xi announced the establishment of the New Development Bank (BRICS Bank) in July, and the Asia Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) in August, and clarified the “One Belt One Road Initiative” (BRI) to the leaders attending the APEC-CEO Summit in November. BRI was pushed at a massive scale since then, but in 2018 criticisms, such as the “debt trap” began emerging. The birth of the Trump Administration stirred up the U.S.-Sino Trade War, and the world was besieged with the COVID-19 pandemic that broke out of Wuhan, China in 2020. Amidst the turbulent global economy, what are we to make of BRI? What prospects could be drawn? In this chapter, we shall trace the development of BRI, its realities and issues, and in the process, consider what the future holds.