Building the belt and road initiative? – practices en route

Abstract

This study attempts to understand the pragmatic development of the belt and road initiative (BRI) in light of the Chinese government’s stated claim that the BRI will be ‘using key economic industrial parks as cooperation platforms’. Through the examination of three overseas economic and trade cooperation zones in the context of the BRI, this study engages with current Chinese language work on the BRI to argue that whilst at the regional level some initiatives may be workable and able to deliver given certain circumstances, in consideration of the goal of continuous expansion of the BRI, both the Chinese government’s role and corporate awareness by Chinese investors is lacking and has undermined general policy goals.