Abstract
With the continuous advancement of the Belt and Road Initiative, countries along the Belt and Road are becoming the most important geo-economic space for China’s peaceful rise. This paper constructs a geo-economic model to measure the geo-economic relations between China and countries along the Belt and Road, analyzes the spatial-temporal patterns of geo-economic flow between China and these countries, and discusses the spatial agglomeration of geo-economic flow between China and these countries. The results show that the geo-economic flow between China and the countries along the Belt and Road is increasing and the geo-economic relations between China and these countries are continuing to improve. Trade flow is far greater than investment flow, and China’s geo-economic relations with these countries have mainly relied on trade flow. The spatial differentiation of geo-economic flow between China and countries along the Belt and Road is significant. The development of geo-economic relations is unbalanced, and regional powers play an important role. The geo-economic center of gravity of China and countries along the Belt and Road was moving in the northeastern part of India and it first moved to the northwest and then to the southeast. China’s geo-economic space has obvious core-peripheral structure characteristics, and Southeast Asia is the core area of China’s geo-economic space. China’s geo-economic space presents a northwest-southeast pattern in the direction. There has been a significant, positive spatial autocorrelation in geo-economic flow between China and the countries along the Belt and Road, but the overall spatial agglomeration has been weak. The geo-economic flow agglomerations of China and these countries have mainly occurred in Southeast Asia, and the main agglomeration type has been high–high. The geo-economic activities of China and Southeast Asia had certain spatial spillover effects. To promote the sustainable development of China’s geo-economic relations with the countries along the Belt and Road, China should upgrade investment networks with these countries, optimize geo-economic relations with regional powers, and promote the full development of trade flow, investment flow and other geo-economic element flow.
Highlights
Since proposing it, China has built the Belt and Road Initiative as an important long-term project
Trade flow between China and countries along the Belt and Road increased from 69393.75 million dollars in 2003 to 495,843.89 million dollars in 2017, while the investment flow increased from 370.07 million dollars in 2003 to 7879.00 million dollars in 2017
It is worth noting that the geo-economic flow among China and countries along the Belt and Road increased by 434,013.07 million dollars in 2003–2017, of which the contribution from trade flow was as high as 98.27%
Summary
China has built the Belt and Road Initiative as an important long-term project. In 2017, the Chinese government launched two initiatives to promote unimpeded trade cooperation and digital economy international cooperation along the Belt and Road. In 2017 and 2019, China organized and held two Belt and Road Forums for International Cooperation and reached a number of cooperation consensuses with participating countries. As of March 2019, the Chinese government had signed 173 cooperation documents about building the Belt and Road, together with 125 countries and 29 international organizations. Due to the joint efforts of China and the countries along the Belt and Road, trade between China and these countries has continued to expand, two-way investment has developed in-depth, the pace of construction of the free trade zone has accelerated, and major projects have come into effect [2]. There is no doubt that China’s geo-economic relations with the countries along the Belt and Road are moving to a new stage
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