China's Belt and Road power transition : preparations and blowbacks / Chien-Peng Chung.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Introduction: The Greatest Roadshow on Earth -- Purpose of the Study -- Motives of the Belt-and-Road Initiative -- Structure of the Belt-and-Road Initiative -- A Brief Review of Literature -- Chapter 1 Introducing China’s Belt-and-Road Initiative -- Where It All Began: The 2008–09 Global Financial Crisis -- Maritime Disputes in the China Seas: Chinese Assertiveness and American Reactions -- China versus the United States in the Diaoyu/Senkaku Islands Dispute -- China versus the United States in the South China Sea Islands Dispute -- Why Is the US Concerned about China Seas Activities? -- The United States’ Pivot, or Rebalance, to Asia: Provoking the BRI -- What the Pivot Entails -- Centering Southeast Asia -- Repositioning Military Forces -- Strengthening Alliances and Encouraging Intra-Asian Security Networks -- Trans-Pacific Partnership -- ASEAN Regional Forum -- East Asia Summit -- ASEAN Defense Ministers’ Meeting Plus -- The Pivot as Coping Mechanism against China’s Rise -- China’s Response to the Pivot -- Power Transition and Direct Cause of the Belt-and-Road Initiative -- Chapter 2 The Silk Road Economic Belt: Bringing Together China’s Eurasian Forums -- China and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization -- Membership -- Structure -- SCO Achievements -- Security -- Economics -- External and Sino-Russian Cooperation -- Cultural-Educational Exchanges -- Membership Expansion -- SCO Challenges -- Institutionalization and Priorities -- India -- Troublesome Partners: Iran and Turkey -- Potential China-Russia Rivalry -- To What Extent Does China Still Need the SCO? -- China-Central and Eastern European Countries -- Membership -- Structure -- China-CEEC Achievements -- Infrastructure Building -- Health Assistance -- China-CEEC Challenges -- Project Controversies -- Political Problems -- To What Extent Is China-CEEC Still Useful to China? -- China–Pakistan Economic Corridor -- CPEC Achievements -- CPEC Challenges -- Chapter 3 Reimagining the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road -- Southeast Asia -- China’s Geopolitical Calculations -- The Geopolitical Calculus of Southeast Asian Receptivity to the MSR -- Southeast Asian Reactions and China’s Response -- Regarding Sovereignty Concerns -- Concerning Public Opinion -- Considering Regime or Leadership Changes -- Questions for Resolution over the MSR in Southeast Asia -- South Asia -- China’s Maritime Silk Road Objectives and Activities in South Asia -- MSR and Sri Lanka -- MSR and Maldives’s Reactions -- MSR and Bangladesh’s Reactions -- Nepal’s Reaction -- India Holding Out -- Security Relationship between China and India -- Economic Relationship between China and India -- Implications for China’s MSR in South Asia -- East Africa and the Red Sea -- China’s MSR Projects in East Africa -- Djibouti -- Ethiopia -- Kenya -- Tanzania -- Egypt -- Reactions to China’s MSR Projects in East Africa -- Chapter 4 China’s “Health Silk Road” Diplomacy -- The Origin of China’s Health Silk Road Diplomacy -- Promotion of the Health Silk Road during COVID-19: China’s Giving -- Seizing Opportunities to Help -- Supplying Medical Assistance and Vaccines -- Reception of the Health Silk Road during COVID-19: China’s Taking -- Dispensing and Purchasing Influence -- Joint Medical Cooperation and Development of Vaccines -- Evolution of China’s Health Silk Road Diplomacy -- Chapter 5 China’s Evolving Belt-and-Road Initiative -- A Bid for World Leadership -- BRI Geographically Extended -- West Africa -- South Pacific -- Latin America and the Caribbean -- Digital Silk Road -- Laying a Digital Silk Road -- Implementing the Digital Silk Road -- Geopolitical Implications of the Digital Silk Road -- Arctic: The Next Silk Road? -- Chapter 6 Blowback to the Belt-and-Road Initiative Power Transition -- Can and Will the West Strike Back? -- Challenges to the BRI: Foreign Initiatives -- Challenges to the BRI: Difficulties Arising from the Initiative Itself -- Repackaging the BRI: The Global Development Initiative and Global Security Initiative -- Conclusion -- Notes -- References -- Index.

Details the Belt and Road global infrastructure development initiative as the most important instrument for China's leadership under Xi Jinping to create an alternative global economic and geopolitical order to challenge the United States. In the opening decades of the twenty-first century the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) leadership under Xi Jinping has created a worldwide Sino-centric network, the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), to challenge American dominance in world affairs. Encompassing economic, financial, political, and strategic relations, the CCP's belief is that the funds, construction projects, and promises offered by the BRI will generate a widespread perception of the inexorability, legitimacy, and thus acceptability of a Chinese world order. Consisting initially of a land-based "Silk Road Economic Belt," an oceangoing "Maritime Silk Road," and the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, the BRI has expanded to involve more than 140 countries and includes a Health Silk Road, Digital Silk Road, and Polar Silk Road, but it has also experienced serious challenges. Using power transition theory, Chien-peng Chung carefully investigates and evaluates the enterprise's benefits and shortcomings, concluding that it is still too early to consider the BRI a success.