Between geopolitics and development: The belt and road ınitiative and the limits of capital accumulation in China
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Tarih
2022
Yazarlar
Dergi Başlığı
Dergi ISSN
Cilt Başlığı
Yayıncı
Erişim Hakkı
info:eu-repo/semantics/closedAccess
Özet
What drives China's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI)? While some claim that the BRI is primarily about economic development, others see it as a grand strategy of a rising power with hegemonic aspirations. Is the BRI about development or geopolitics? This article adopts a political economy approach to bridge the developmental and geopolitical perspectives on the BRI. The primary argument is that the BRI signifies an attempt by the Chinese state to manage internal problems of capital accumulation by externalising development. In this sense, this is a typical crisis of capitalist development which generates a drive fir geographic expansion and restructuring. The distinguishing feature of the BRI, apart from its sheer scale, is its emphasis on connectivity Rather than simply exporting excess capital and capacity onto others, the BRI seeks to re-territorialise developmental spaces by connecting them via economic corridors consisting of hard and soft infrastructure networks. It is also contended here that in the process of constructing new infrastructures of capital the BRI creates space fir new firms of asymmetric interdependence between China and its partners. To the extent that such asymmetric relations generate costs of exiting China-centred networks, the initiative serves a geopolitical as well as a developmental function. Asymmetric interdependencies, whether they are by design or by-products of enhanced connectivity thus facilitate China's pursuit for a more prominent role in the international order.
Açıklama
Anahtar Kelimeler
China, The Belt and Road Initiative, Geopolitics, Development, Interdependence
Kaynak
China Report
WoS Q Değeri
N/A
Scopus Q Değeri
Q2
Cilt
Sayı
Künye
Demiryol, T. (2022). Between geopolitics and development: The belt and road initiative and the limits of capital accumulation in China. China Report.