At the Dawn of Belt and Road: China in the Developing World

Abstract

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Dark Clouds over the Silk Road: Challenges Facing Mountain Environments in Central Asia

“…The combined effects of the collapse of the Soviet Union and the economic crisis in Russia in the early 1990's provided a segue for China to tap into the natural resources and commodities of the newly emerging Central Asian nations and secure borders [25]. Because government structures and thus political ramifications vary from country to country in Central Asia, it is difficult to completely view the potential impacts of the BRI as a monolith in this region.…”

“…For example, Kyrgyzstan serves as a transit hub and has received Chinese investments for infrastructure development and extraction of natural resources, particularly gold mining [7]. Tajikistan now relies heavily on inexpensive goods from China as well as Chinese investments in infrastructure, hydropower, cement production, and mining, while Afghanistan is targeted for copper mining and oil exploration [7,25]. All of these road networks are targeted for future expansion under the BRI.…”

“…Since the 1990's exports from Uyghur forced-labor camps in the Xinjiang region, particularly via the 'cotton supply chain' [31] have been pouring into and transiting through Central Asia, constituting another potential disease vector, not to mention human rights abuses. Another often overlooked development is the expansion of military exercises that China is conducting in Central Asia-the most of anywhere in the world [25]. Along the poorly maintained Pamir Highway (M51), which connects into western China, large trucks hauling Chinese goods are increasingly pouring through Tajikistan deteriorating and often blocking the road and causing noise and dust pollution in Pamir communities.…”

Free and Open Indo-Pacific in Defense Cooperation between Indonesia and Australia

“…These countries can be categorized as key countries -relations with Beijing. These four countries have been key in expanding the BRI Program across Southeast Asia [32]. Indonesia as a trajectory country, is tested whether it will be able to benefit from this position or only as an observer of the country's trade traffic.…”

Has the Belt and Road Initiative Brought New Opportunities to Countries Along the Routes to Participate in Global Value Chains?

“…However, some researchers criticized BRI as being the largest and most ambitious global infrastructure project. They noted that BRI aims mainly to sustain China's domestic economic growth and increase its global influence instead of ensuring the economic development of countries along the routes (Padilla, 2017;Scobell et al, 2018). Others have argued that with the continuous implementation of BRI, the cooperative projects along the Belt and Road (BR) countries continuously yield fruits (Pan, 2017), and the integration of economy with BR countries especially in Central and West Asia, Western Europe, and Russia has reached new heights (Huang, 2016).…”