China’s Belt-Road Initiative as the Signature of President Xi Jinping Diplomacy: Easier Said than Done

Abstract

This article examines the design, objectives, and implementation of the Belt Road Initiative (BRI) six years after its inception. It argues that although the BRI as a top-level design on which President Xi has staked his personal legacy is to serve China’s ambitious geostrategic and geo-economic interests, many developing countries have welcomed the BRI because of their desperate need in infrastructure construction. But the BRI’s popularity has exceeded the substance as China has yet to bridge many fault lines on the ground.