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THIS WEEK'S SILK ROAD HEADLINES
Among the news items and analyses from this week, an edited EUISS report stands out with its broad insights into some of the main trends in current Chinese policy and of the often daunting challenges Beijing is and will be tackling in the coming few years, with an eye on their potential impact on Europe [Chinese futures: Horizon 2025]. The ten short chapters, contributed by leading China experts hailing from both the think tank and the academic world, are grouped into three main sections, dealing respectively with China’s domestic, regional, and global policy drivers. This design helpfully sheds light on the interconnectedness of said dimensions, which is in turn crucial when trying to make better sense of Beijing’s ever-expanding outreach.
While for the EU China’s flagship outreach effort –the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI)- seemingly holds a lot of potential and has often been praised as the herald of new enhanced cooperation, other players –often overlooked- have been far less impressed. As argued in an insightful article on Eurasia Review, India, in particular, has three main reservations regarding the BRI [China’s One Belt One Road And India’s Divergent Views- Analysis]. First, China’s creation of an economic corridor with Pakistan, seen by New Delhi as a threat to its very territorial integrity and sovereignty, given how the CPEC passes through still disputed areas of Kashmir. Second, the BRI’s underlying unilateralism, which clashes with India’s more layered and multilateral approach to regional politics and policies. Third, financial concerns arising from the potential inability of ‘host countries’ –especially the smaller ones- to pay back the large loans given by China to develop BRI-related projects. However, provided that some degree of integration into the BRI is achieved, critics such as India could in fact turn into ‘critical friends’ for Beijing, as their input might prove very valuable to make the BRI better defined and actually more inclusive.
Francesco S. Montesano
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