The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) in the context of China’s opening-up policy

Abstract

[Background]: China’s economy currently shifts its development pattern from investment/export-led to consumption/domestic demand-led growth. In a new stage of domestic-oriented development, what role is expected of China’s opening-up policy? It is no longer just a means to obtain foreign currency and technology but for China as an economic superpower to enhance its role in global governance. The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) proposed by General Secretary Xi Jinping in 2013 is regarded as a new grand strategy in a new stage of China’s opening-up policy. [Purpose]: This article attempts to position the BRI in China’s opening-up policy focusing on its growing role in global governance of major international economic regimes. [Main Argument]: This article consists of three parts. The first part deals with China’s responses to major international economic regimes. The second part considers the purpose and development of the BRI from a viewpoint of China’s opening-up policy. The third part investigates into China’s development aid/finance in the BRI as a case study of its attitude toward an international regime of this kind. [Conclusions]: As far as the development aid/finance in the BRI is concerned, China’s behavior to form an economic area led by it is a new challenge to existing international economic regimes. As the largest beneficiary of free trade system, however, China does not seek for fundamental restructuring of current international economic regimes. It must be the most favorable scenario for China to taste the fruits of free trade system and to form its dominant economic area in the backyard.