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772. Iran–China Cooperation in the Silk Road Economic Belt: From Strategic Understanding to Operational Understanding
- Author:
- Mohsen Shariatinia and Hamidreza Azizi
- Publication Date:
- 11-2017
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Abstract:
- Iran served as a bridge in the ancient Silk Road, connecting the East and the West. It also has great potential to play an important role in the new Silk Road. The present study analyzes the factors affecting Iran–China cooperation in the context of the Belt and Road Initiative at the strategic and operational levels. This article shows that, at the strategic level, Iran defines this project as an opportunity to improve its status in the world economy, expanding its room to manoeuvre in the international arena and developing its ties with China, a rising great power. At the operational level, the opportunities and challenges for Iran–China cooperation could be summarized as pertaining to five realms within the Silk Road Economic Belt Initiative: policy coordination, facilitation of connectivity, unimpeded trade, financial integration and people-to-people bonds. The present study asserts that the main opportunity for cooperation between the two countries lies in facilitating connectivity and that the key challenge is financial integration.
- Topic:
- International Political Economy and International Affairs
- Political Geography:
- China and Iran
773. The Belt and Road Initiative in China’s Emerging Grand Strategy of Connective Leadership
- Author:
- Giovanni Andornino
- Publication Date:
- 10-2017
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Abstract:
- As Chinese leaders endeavor to maintain the international environment aligned with their strategic aim of realizing the “dream of national rejuvenation,” the remarkable increase in China’s capabilities, coupled with uncertainty in the global economy and the ambivalent attitude of the USA toward the international order, poses fresh challenges to Beijing’s foreign policy. The present paper argues that a lexicographic preference for the mitigation of the risk of pushback against China’s core interests underpins the Belt and Road Initiative. Pursuing a strategy of credible reassurance commensurate to the shift in the distribution of power in China’s neighborhood and globally, President Xi Jinping’s administration has been cultivating a form of connective leadership that commits China to the encapsulation of the Belt and Road Initiative for transregional connectivity into its own national development strategy, generating an octroyé, non-hegemonic, type of international social capital, and integrating the existing order without corroborating the position of its founder
- Topic:
- International Political Economy
- Political Geography:
- China
774. China’s Engagement with the Sixteen Countries of Central, East and Southeast Europe under the Belt and Road Initiative
- Author:
- Anastas Vangeli
- Publication Date:
- 10-2017
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Abstract:
- This paper provides an overview of China’s burgeoning relationship with Central, East and Southeast Europe (CESEE) in the context of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). China has rapidly expanded the extent of its interactions with CESEE since 2012, and this region has subsequently become one of the focal points of the BRI. The key feature of China’s engagement with CESEE is the devising of an experimental and innovative approach, demonstrated in the establishment of an institutional mechanism for cooperation with a particular group of 16 CESEE countries (16+1). The case of China–CESEE relations offers an insight into how, in the era of the BRI, China is complementing its economic approach with institution-building and policy coordination. The article concludes that as the BRI progresses, these tendencies will remain central to China’s relations with CESEE
- Topic:
- International Affairs
- Political Geography:
- China
775. The dissemination of the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence
- Author:
- YUAN Zhengqing and SONG Xiaoqin
- Publication Date:
- 10-2017
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Abstract:
- The study of international norms is an important topic in the international politics. Western theories tend to emphasize the top-down instruction at the international level and learning at the state level, and empirical studies focus on the dissemination of Western norms to the rest of the world. Consequently, the role of non-Western countries is neglected in the process of norm dissemination. The dissemination of the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence offers an excellent opportunity to examine the behaviors of non-Western countries. The Five Principles proposed by China was neither imposed forcibly upon other countries nor intended to educate others in a condescending manner with a so-called “civilized” standard. Instead, the Five Principles started to disseminate in the process of equal interactions with the neighboring countries with similar experiences in history. Gradually, it embedded itself into more international meetings and treaties through establishing diplomatic relations, convening international meetings, participating in international organizations and offering foreign aid and expanded from ideologically similar countries into ideologically divergent ones.
- Topic:
- International Affairs
- Political Geography:
- China
776. China and the Remolding of International Human Rights Norms
- Author:
- YUAN Zhengqing, Li Zhiyong, and Zhufu Xiaofei
- Publication Date:
- 07-2017
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Abstract:
- The life cycle of international norms is not actually a process of emergence, diffusion and internalization. As is shown by the logic of argumentation and the relational logic of processoriented constructivism, the development of international norms may take another approach, one of origination, diffusion and remolding. Through dialogues on norms, discourse critique, self-remolding and other means, China has enriched the practice of remolding international human rights norms with a human rights theory centered on the right to survive and develop, thereby providing a new approach and new angle of vision that allows non-Western countries to break away from the monist approach of norm development.
- Topic:
- Human Rights and International Affairs
- Political Geography:
- China
777. “Alternative” Strategic Perceptions in U.S.-China Relations
- Author:
- David J. Firestein and Euhwa Tran
- Publication Date:
- 05-2017
- Content Type:
- Commentary and Analysis
- Institution:
- EastWest Institute
- Abstract:
- The EastWest Institute has released a new report on U.S.-China relations—"Alternative” Strategic Perceptions in U.S.-China Relations. The report lays out the differing strategic perceptions of the United States and China with respect to some of the most topical and challenging issues on the U.S.-China agenda today. These starkly differing perceptions inform and exacerbate actual policy and fuel mistrust and broad mutual strategic suspicion. By exposing the diverging perceptions of the two countries and bringing those perceptions into the fabric of bilateral discourse more explicitly and honestly, this report creates the basis for a more honest, substantive, constructive, fruitful and mutually beneficial dialogue.
- Topic:
- International Political Economy and International Affairs
- Political Geography:
- China and America
778. Dialogue on U.S.-China Infrastructure Cooperation
- Author:
- Natalie Pretzer-Lin
- Publication Date:
- 03-2017
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- EastWest Institute
- Abstract:
- On March 13, 2017, the EastWest Institute (EWI), in concert with the China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations (CICIR), convened the first ever conference on prospects for infrastructure cooperation between the United States and China. This conference, held in Beijing, brought together a U.S. delegation comprising investment and infrastructure experts—some of whom have advised the Trump administration on infrastructure—with Chinese counterparts from a number of private sector and state-owned enterprises. Discussion throughout the conference focused on the policy priorities of the Trump Administration; the Trump administration’s vision for the development of U.S. infrastructure; the current state of U.S.-China relations; and opportunities, challenges and recommendations for U.S.-China infrastructure cooperation.
- Topic:
- International Affairs
- Political Geography:
- China and America
779. Chinease Investment in Europe: A country level approach
- Author:
- Thomas Renard
- Publication Date:
- 12-2017
- Content Type:
- Special Report
- Institution:
- EGMONT - The Royal Institute for International Relations
- Abstract:
- Belgium may not be China’s prime destination for investment in Europe, but as in other neighboring countries these investments are increasing in quality and quantity. Chinese investments are mostly welcomed and encouraged by the government, its agencies and the business community. However, a recent failed deal with EANDIS, a public energy company, has also raised some concerns about the economic and security implications of (some) Chinese investments. Belgian intelligence services, notably, argue for a bit of caution vis-à-vis China. While these two visions could be complementary, they remain held by distinct communities that seem reluctant to acknowledge and listen to one another. As a result, the Belgian response to China’s economic offensive remains overwhelmingly reactive and uncoordinated.
- Topic:
- International Political Economy
- Political Geography:
- China
780. An uphill struggle? Towards coordinated EU engagement with China’s Belt and Road Initiative
- Author:
- Stephan Klose, Astrid Pepermans, and Leia Wang
- Publication Date:
- 11-2017
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- EGMONT - The Royal Institute for International Relations
- Abstract:
- China’s 19th Party Congress unexpectedly amended the party’s constitution with a pledge to “pursue the Belt and Road Initiative”. This further elevates the status of president Xi’s heavily promoted foreign policy, which aims at creating trade and investment opportunities through the development of Eurasia’s continental and maritime infrastructure. As the implications of this policy are increasingly felt across Europe, following years of growing Chinese investments, so are the challenges it presents to Europe’s unity, prosperity and security. In light of these challenges a constructive engagement with China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) constitutes an immense task for the European Union, whose position has been weakened by growing dissent among member states over the Union’s policy towards China.
- Topic:
- International Affairs
- Political Geography:
- China and Europe