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The author explains how the story of China geo-political vision has recently taken a new turn under the leadership of Xi Jinping, and signals a major shift towards a more expansive and outward-looking economic policy.

Understanding more fully what is happening in the latest phase of China’s modern resurgence is a strategic imperative for both public policy analysts and corporate leaders with global interests and ambitions.

China is now convinced that extending its ‘infrastructure and connectivity” focus outwards in this way will help ‘to dismantle investment barriers, create new trade routes, improve international logistics and deepen financial integration.’

Beijing is ‘adamant’ that it should not be called a ‘plan’ or a ‘strategy’ lest it ‘be interpreted as ruse to build a vast economic empire.’

China's BRI extends beyond ports, railways and highways to other major types of infrastructure including oil and gas pipelines, electricity power plants and telecommunications networks. So the invitation to be part of BRI presents ‘a vast economic carrot,’ and the prospect of becoming major hubs on emerging new pan-regional trade routes is enormously attractive to many of China’s underdeveloped neighbors. 10;

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the perspectives of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) Belt and Road strategy. The challenge in terms of studying the New Silk Road concept comes from the fact of dramatic difference between the declared ambitions of the Chinese state and the elusive character of concrete Chinese involvement, in particular as far as the digital dimension of the strategy is concerned.

The goal will be achieved by comparing the Chinese expansion in the Post-Soviet Central Asia with nowadays declarations concerning the digital version of the New Silk Road. For China, the Post-Soviet Central Asia was the first frontier approached on the basis of genuinely own integration strategy: the New Silk Road Diplomacy, which later evolved into the New Silk Road concept. An overview of Chinese activity in the region tells a lot about its grand strategy of today.

To paraphrase T.S. Kuhn, what one sees depends on not only what one is looking at but also what one has learned to notice. The Post-Soviet Central Asia shows the way Beijing thinks about integration. PRC achieved the most by basing on the free rider effect: concentrating on economic expansion, while other Powers provided relative regional security and stability.

The comparison of the beginnings of the New Silk Diplomacy in the 1990s with the plans of the New Digital Road gives a unique angle to grasp the specific features of the Chinese approach to international integration.

The China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI, hereafter) has reenergized the Silk Road concept, with most literature focusing on the political and economic effects of the BRI. While certain aspects of the Digital Silk Road (DSR), digital component of BRI, have been researched, much less focus has been placed on the technological development, tech transfer and information diffusion aspects of the BRI. The aim of this study is to investigate the opportunities, issues and critiques that have arisen as a result of the Belt and Road Initiative’s implications on innovation, knowledge transfer and dissemination.

Research in its nature is descriptive. Literature reviews are a significant part of the development of a field. Therefore, secondary sources were considered.

The literature and the study have highlighted several opportunities, problems and criticism that decision-makers and the relevant agencies and institutions should take into account when deciding how to move forward with BRI and its digital component DSR.

This paper contributes to the research literature on BRI and its subset DSR’s impacts on innovation, knowledge transfer and information diffusion. In fact, the DSR’s primary aim is to strengthen international cooperation in the digital economy. Furthermore, digital platforms now play a significant role in global trade, emphasizing the necessity of DSR.

The New Silk Road Diplomacy in the Nineties, the Belt and Road Initiative today, and the Digital Silk Road of the future signal growing Chinese ambitions in international relations. The bold plans and visions may turn into fundaments of future Chinese domination in World affairs. However, the ways they are to be achieved indicate, that the Chinese policy-making did not adapt yet to new reality of being a leader rather than a free-rider taking advantage of other Powers’ international involvement. The goal of the chapter is to point to the limitations of PRC ambitions. Qualitatively new international reality requires qualitatively new approaches. China, if it does not realize that, despite being one of the biggest surprises in terms of dynamics of development in twentieth century, may become one of the biggest disappointments in twenty-first century. The World seems to accept the fact of growing PRC role in international dimensions. The question is, is China ready for this change not only in words but also in practice.

Globalisation has remained a subjective term as the magnitude unfolded. Every new decade witnesses new opportunities for global integration of the economies. One among such initiatives, it is argued, is the One Belt One Road initiative of the People’s Republic of China. It is assumed to be beneficial for the world and at least for the region, if not to say more. The world has witnessed efforts and trends of protectionism as well, but China comes up with new vigour. One Belt One Road has entered into consistent talks and deliberations at the world level. It is therefore imperative to identify the emerging linkages between the participant countries in One Belt One Road. This study aims to take up the task of enquiring about the effect of One Belt One Road on the gravity between China and the nations of Eurasia. This study looks for the realisation of the expected economic ties and internationalisation emerging from One Belt One Road and the evidence for the same. This will be identified in the present study. The paper also attempts to theorise a model for One Belt One Road.

This study takes up the task of enquiring about the effect of One Belt One Road on the gravity between China and the nations of Eurasia. The hypothesised economic ties and internationalisation will be a reality or not. And what are the evidences for the same. This will be identified in the proposed study. An attempt to theorise the model for One Belt One Road is also taken.

It is perceived that the mega project would fill the wedge between China and Eurasia and convergence will follow with the start of the One Belt One Road.

The emergence of China in the global world order as the initiator of mega deals and projects and its dominion in every realm of economic activity is a topic of scrutiny for the entire world. In this context, the One Belt One Road initiative offers huge potential for exploration. As the project is in its early stages of planning and execution, its prospects of tying entire Europe and Russia with China through two of the revived ancient routes are essential to the entire world.

The growing power of China's economy with its ‘One Belt One Road’ initiative for building a new globalised world is generally believed to have an impact on global economic development and sustainability.

The current Chairman and President of the People's Republic of China Mr. Jinping Xi proposed the ‘One Belt One Road’ initiative in 2013 during his official visit to Kazakhstan and Indonesia. This was a Chinese initiative to create the Silk Road Economic Belt (SREB) and the Maritime Silk Road (MSR) to promote a new model for international cooperation and development. In recent years, more and more countries from Asia, the Middle East, Europe and Africa have agreed to join the initiative and have established their regional plans for economic development and sustainability.

This chapter provides a critical review of China's ‘One Belt and One Road’ initiative for creating higher growth and economic development through infrastructure connectivity, increased trade and investment. It discusses the challenges of the ‘One Belt One Road’ initiative and reports on the risks associated with the development of this regional cooperation. It summarises arguments for a common approach to infrastructure development and regional cooperation by supranational institutions.

It concludes that the growing positive support for China's ‘One Belt One Road’ initiative and its development as one of the largest infrastructure and investment projects in history would bring significant benefits to the global economy.

As China’s economy has expanded, so has its need for energy. Consequently, China has increased its domestic energy capacities and developed import strategies for oil and gas. In its international energy activities, China has progressed through a series of stages. The purpose of this paper is to focus on China’s latest stage: creating an overland energy network, supplied primarily by Central Asia’s Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, and becoming the energy hub of an integrated Asian market – China’s recent “Silk Road” proposal. This paper also examines the impact of Chinese energy investments on the prospects of Central Asian energy producers transitioning to emerging markets.

The author delineate four stages of China’s international engagement and introduce the concept of the Chinese energy cooperation model: capital-intensive energy investments combined with the opening of local markets to Chinese goods. To assess the impact of this model on Central Asia, the author apply insights gained from analyzing the experience of resource-exporters in Latin America and Sub-Saharan Africa.

The author findings are twofold: China has secured the energy resources of several Central Asian states for its “Silk Road” plan; and the Chinese energy cooperation model brings rapid growth, but has effects deleterious to the attainment of emerging market status.

This paper contributes to the limited knowledge on China’s “Silk Road” plan and on China’s impact on resource-rich developing countries and is useful for researchers, academics and policymakers.

In as much as it is contested, the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) is also unexplored, underdiscussed, and, as a result, misunderstood. Frequently viewed through the lens of international relations and global economy, the diverse dimensions of collaboration, including business and research-industry clusters, that BRI enhances, tend to be excluded from the analysis. In a similar manner, the role of the Arab Peninsula in the grand strategy underpinning BRI and its implementation is rarely discussed. BRI is a forward-oriented initiative, an attempt to reap benefits of developments and circumstances that are only nascent. This bears two potent implications. First, as China attempts to influence the context in which it operates, it is subject to change itself; the Chinese business sector evolution attests to that. Second, some of China’s not so obvious partners of today, including those in the Arab Peninsula, are about to turn into key interlocutors of tomorrow. BRI taps into opportunities thus created. This chapter elaborates on these issues and, against this backdrop, outlines how the remaining chapters included in this volume add to this discussion.