Suchergebnisse

China's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) is intended to radically increase investment and integration along a series of land and maritime routes. As the initiative involves more than 100 countries or international organizations and huge amounts of infrastructure construction, cooperation between many different markets is essential to its success. Cheung and Hong have edited a collection of essays that, between them, examine a range of practical issues facing the BRI and how those issues are being addressed in a range of countries. Such challenges include managing financing and investment, ensuring infrastructure connectivity, and handling the necessary e-commerce and physical logistics.

Emphasizing the role of Hong Kong as an intermediary and enabler in the process, this book attempts to tackle the key practical challenges facing the BRI and anticipate how these challenges will affect the initiative's further development. The book provides a holistic and international approach to understanding the implementation of the BRI and its implications for the future economic integration of this huge region.

This chapter makes an empirical contribution by
studying whether the launch of BRI has led to a shift in Central Asian attitudes
towards and perceptions of China. We discuss the interaction between China and
each of the five Central Asian states, highlighting local attitudes towards and perceptions
of the big neighbour. We focus on economic interaction, infrastructure
and education initiatives as they are among the main pillars of the BRI agenda,
while acknowledging that cooperation on political, diplomatic, and security issues
has been no less important for shaping perceptions of China in Central Asia.
One limitation of our analysis should be mentioned. It is difficult to separate
BRI analytically from other ongoing projects within the bilateral cooperation
between China and the Central Asian countries, "as many bilateral agreements
are now being brought under the Silk Road and BRI umbrella" (Dave 2018,
p. 100). We attempt to overcome this limitation by tracing changes in attitudes
towards and perception of China in general since 2013, when BRI was
announced, and whether the change can be attributed to the promotion of BRI.