Article
Belt and Road at the Cross-Roads: Imperial Ambitions and Blowback

By : Sujit Dutta

Page No: 193-228

Abstract
China’s plan to construct the continental Economic Belt across Eurasia and a Maritime Silk Road that extends through the Pacific and the Indian Oceans under the Belt and Road Initiative (the BRI), has over the past eight years expanded to nearly 70 countries. Under the plan China has been engaged in providing large loans for connecting and integrating these countries with China’s economy through cross-border roads, railways, ports, digital networks and spacebased satellite communications. It is the clearest expression of China’s grand strategy to create a China-centric Eurasian and Indo-Pacific order, with a new set of governance norms, institutions, technical standards, and politico-economic architecture. The plan also entails the internationalisation of the Renminbi and sustains China dominated global supply chains. The BRI is aimed to advance China’s economic, political and security interests. It is paving the way for the PLA to extend its regional and global presence to protect growing Chinese interests and assets abroad. It has the potential to expand China’s strategic space on land and the seas far beyond its borders. The plan, however, is facing growing criticism and opposition for its lack of transparency, imposing unsustainable debt burdens on fragile economies, and replicating a neo-colonial strategy. While Chinese loans are proposed to meet infrastructural needs in the developing world, a series of Chinese dependencies are being created with wide strategic ramifications.

Author :
Sujit Dutta is the Editor of National Security journal and a Distinguished Fellow of the VIF. He was Professor of Peace and Conflict Studies at the Jamia Millia Islamia, Central University, New Delhi, and held the M K Gandhi Chair in peace studies. He was earlier a Senior Fellow at the Institute of Defence Studies and Analyses, New Delhi.