Beyond Balancing: China’s approach towards the Belt and Road Initiative

This article explores the motivations and calculations behind China’s Belt and Road Initiative. It argues that China’s efforts to enhance regional multilateral cooperation across the Eurasian space through the BRI are strongly motivated by a multifaceted grand strategy. First, China makes use of the BRI as a vehicle of soft balancing to frustrate the US containment and encirclement of China, and undermine its dominance in Eurasia and beyond....