International Perspectives on the Belt and Road Initiative A Bottom-Up Approach

SECTION I: Background

1. Re-imagining the Silk Road for the 21st century

SIDH SINTUSINGHA AND HAO WU

2. The BRI from within China: vision, rationale and the "corridors"

WENQI LIN, SHUO GONG, MENGHE WU AND HUI YI

3. The BRI from within China: mechanisms, institutions and media representations

BO QIN, WEI LIU AND YAN ZHANG

SECTION II: International context, analysis and outcome

4. Urban development challenges under the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC)

MUHAMMAD IMRAN, MURAD ALI AND MUHAMMAD SALEEM JANJUA

5. Inter-continental transport networks and Asian Economic Corridor for the Korean Peninsula

HYUNG MIN KIM

6. Establishing the BRI in Thailand: contrasting "desire lines" in the delivery of two high-speed rail projects

SIDH SINTUSINGHA

7. Malaysia: chinese participation in infrastructure from contractor to conspirator?

TOONG KHUAN CHAN

8. China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) in Cambodia

SUN SHENG HAN AND YMENG LIM

9. The production of megaprojects in Java: colonialism, nationalism, development centralisation vs decentralisation

EKA PERMANASARI AND SIDH SINTUSINGHA

10. The Belt and Road Initiative in Iran: urban-regional dialogue in two corridors and three cities

MORTEZA MIRGHOLAMI

11. The critical need for urban planning around Port Vila’s BRI projects

JENNIFER DAY

12. Ethiopia: the Addis Ababa–Djibouti railway

KELLY LEVIKER

13. Strengthening Brazil’s food system: can China’s Belt and Road help?

ADRIAN H. HEARN

14. Challenges and opportunities to port development with the BRI in Japan

ZHENJ IANG SHEN AND YAJ ING ZHANG

SECTION III: Comparative perspectives: a bottom-up approach

15. International perspectives of the BRI: new, unfolding globalisation

SIDH SINTUSINGHA AND HAO WU

Biography

Sidh Sintusingha is Senior Lecturer in Landscape Architecture and coordinator of its postgraduate programme in the Faculty of Architecture, Building and Planning at the University of Melbourne, Australia.

Hao Wu is Senior Lecturer in Property in the Faculty of Architecture, Building and Planning at the University of Melbourne, Australia.

Wenqi Lin is Associate Professor of Urban Planning and Design in the School of Architecture and Chief Planner of Urban Planning and Design Institute at Tsinghua University, China.

Sun Sheng Han is Professor of Urban Planning in the Faculty of Architecture, Building and Planning at the University of Melbourne, Australia.

Bo Qin is Professor of Urban Planning and Management in the School of Public Administration and Policy, Renmin University of China.

"As a framework for a fundamentally new form of cooperation between radically different economies, polities and societies, the Belt and Road Initiative would seek to recast the political-economic geography of the twenty-first century. The essays of this volume take the reader through the vast diversity of perspectives on this ideal. It is a provocatively informative read."

Ross King, author of Seoul and Kuala Lumpur and Putrajaya

"Using a bottom-up approach, this book is undoubtedly an encyclopaedic masterpiece about the Belt and Road Initiative, which is rich in basic information and perspectives, written by specialist experts of specific countries. This book offers an in-depth interpretation of the re-globalisation, the role of China and recipient nations, the world’s geopolitical economy, and the driving forces of future world development."

Chaolin Gu, Tsinghua University

"The latest book on the global 'new Silk Road' constitutes a stimulating and timely effort. The multi-disciplinary assessment studies provide amazing insights from twelve countries. The key words of mutual benefits, cooperation and peace are balanced against the notion of Chinese neo-colonialism. China’s 'mapping of globalization' has not reached a period of full impact on the entire world yet, but future studies might show whether it is ultimately as beneficial as the authors and editors expect in this remarkable new book."

H. Detlef Kammeier, Professor of Urban and Regional Planning, Asian Institute of Technology, Bangkok

"China's Belt and Road Initiative is a major force for political and economic change, both in South East-Asia and beyond. Some view it as wholly beneficial, others as deeply worrying. This book provides a valuable balanced, critical, bottom-up approach which examines the impact and reactions to the BRI in a variety of countries."

Chris Hamnett, FAcSS FRSA FKC