Does Brexit Influence China’s “One Belt One Road” Initiative?

Tracing the Links between Infrastructure‐Led Development, Urban Transformation, and Inequality in China’s Belt and Road Initiative

“…The narrative of prosperity and employment opportunities has been powerful, especially as it is framed as the only alternative for the ethnically diverse East London that has one of the highest unemployment rates in the capital and has been hardly hit both by prolonged austerity and the COVID‐19 pandemic as local activists emphasised during our discussions. It nonetheless neglects to mention that despite the rhetoric of job creation available evidence suggests that so far Chinese companies play the key role in the project (Heiduk 2018). It also ignores that the area’s regeneration is not only dispossessing the public from the potential of an open, accessible and truly welcoming urban space but it could also bring the displacement of low‐income people that has been a defining characteristic of gentrification processes within and beyond the Docklands.…”

Brexit and its Impact on the Co-Operation Along with the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road—Assessment from Port Governance

“…The British government claims to be a 'natural partner' of China and has consequently welcomed the BRI as a stimulus to intensify Sino-UK relations. For example, there are four BRI projects in the UK, which are the Yiwu-London freight train route, the Hinkley nuclear power plant, the development of a new business district on the grounds of the London Royal Albert Dock, and the use of the City of London as a top-tier financial centre for financing BRI projects (Heiduk, 2018). However, these projects will have reverberations of Brexit, as the UK will lose its place as an economic, social and cultural centre of the EU.…”

“…In the post-Brexit period, China's BRI strategy for the EU could lead to increasingly rapid infrastructure investments in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE), which could encourage Chinese corporations to move production to this region. Subsequently, Sino-UK trade can be diverted from land transport to passage into the Arctic Sea (Heiduk, 2018). Secondly, BRI investments in the UK energy sector have not yet been reduced.…”