Routledge Handbook of Chinese and Eurasian International Relations

List of Figures

List of Tables

List of Contributors

Preface in Chinese
By Kevin Lo

Preface in English
By Kevin Lo

Acknowledgments

List of Abbreviations

 

Introduction of Chinese Eurasian Relations

MHER SAHAKYAN AND ANAHIT PARZYAN

 

Part I

Powers Play in Eurasia in a Multipolar World Order 2.0

 

1. China’s Position on Russo-Ukrainian War in a Multipolar World Order 2.0

MHER SAHAKYAN

 

2. US-China Competition in Eurasia: Actions and Reactions in a Multipolar World Order 2.0

GREG SIMONS

 

PART II

Central Asia

3. Empowering the Dragon: Strategic Competition of China and Russia in the Central Asian  Natural Gas Sector

TAMAS DUDLAK

4. India’s Engagement with Central Asia and Competition with China in a Multipolar World Order 2.0

SRDJAN ULJEVIC

5. Belt and Road Initiative’s and Central Asia’s Challenges: Case Study Kazakhstan

RUSLAN IZIMOV

 6. Rethinking China-Kyrgyzstan Relations: Addressing Challenges and Imbalances

ZAMIRA MURATALIEVA

 

Part III

Middle East

 7. Turkey and China in the Eurasian Landmass: From Bilateral Relations to the Silk Road Cooperation

 SELÇUK ÇOLAKOĞLU

 8. Iran’s Look to the East Policy after US Withdrawal from Nuclear Deal: Chinese and Russian Directions

 DAVOUD GHARAYAGH-ZANDI  

 9. The GCC states and China: Asymmetric Relations in a Multipolar World Order 2.0

MÁTÉ SZALAI

 

Part IV

Europe

 10. Unpacking Germany’s Contemporary Relationship with China: The Political and Economic Factors Driving the Hedge

MAXIMILIAN OHLE, RICHARD J. COOK AND ZHAOYING HAN

 11. Relations between China and Italy in the Context of the Development of the World Market 

ORAZIO MARIA GNERRE

 12. Czech-China Relations: Future Possibilities and Policy Shifts in a Multipolar World Order 2.0

ŠÁRKA WAISOVÁ

 13. Analysing Comprehensive Strategic Partnership between China and Serbia: Political, Economic, and Military-Technical Relations

 NENAD STEKIĆ

 14. Poland-China Relations: Policy Shifts, Economic, Educational, and Cultural Ties in a Multipolar World Order 2.0

ELŻBIETA PROŃ

 15. China and Greece: Political, Economic, and Cultural Relations in the Multipolar World Order 2.0

GINA PANAGOPOULOU

 

Part V

Asia-Pacific

 16. Examining Hong Kong’s Agency within Sino-American Relations

BRIAN WONG YUE SHUN AND JASON YIP WAI CHEONG

 17. US-China Competition: Framing New Security Architecture in the Asia-Pacific Region

AHMED BUX JAMALI, MEHMOOD HUSSAIN AND HONGSONG LIU

 18. Unpacking the Discursive Strategies and Drivers of Chinese Visions of an Alternative World Order: History and Emotions in the South China Sea Dispute 

 ERIC POMÈS AND MATTHIEU GRANDPIERRON

 19. Exploring the Conditions for Settling the South China Sea Territorial Dispute between China and Malaysia

 YULONG DAI

 20. China’s Belt and Road Initiative and Japan’s Strategic Response through the AAGC, QUAD and FOIP 2.0

TONY TAI-TING LIU

 21. China’s Belt and Road Initiative and Sri Lanka: A Geopolitical Perspective

ASANTHA SENEVIRATHNA

 22. Mongolia and China’s Belt and Road Initiative in Multipolar World Order 2.0

CONNOR JUDGE

 

PART VI

Arctic

 23. The Dragon and the Bear on the Polar Silk Road: The Impact of Sino-Russian Cooperation on the Great Power Competition in the Arctic

 JAN ŽELEZNÝ

 

Part VII

China’s Relations with the Eurasian Economic Union and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization

 24. The Eurasian Economic Union–China Relations: Challenges and Prospects

GOHAR BARSEGHYAN

 25. Analysing CPC’s Image-Building for the EU and the US in the Context of NATO 

ARMINE ARZRUMANYAN

 

Part VIII

Digitalization and International Relations

 26. Legal Aspects of the Digital Silk Road: Trends and Challenges

MAGDALENA ŁĄGIEWSKA   

 27. Exploring the Competition and Technological Decoupling between the US and China: A Case Study of the Digital Silk Road and the EAEU States

LEV M. SOKOLSCHIK AND EDUARD Z. GALIMULLIN

 

Part IX

Environmental Politics

 28. Environmental Geopolitics: The Belt and Road Initiative and China’s Global Influence

KEVIN LO

 29. Tackling Environmental Worries and Social Tensions in Italy and China through E-Government Systems

 GIORGIO CARIDI

 

Part X

CONCLUSION

 30. Conclusion: The Eurasian Continent is in a Multipolar World Order 2.0 stage

 MHER SAHAKYAN

 

For More from Mher Sahakyan and Routledge Read

Index

Biography

Mher Sahakyan is the founder and director of the China-Eurasia Council for Political and Strategic Research. He is the editor of Routledge Handbook of Chinese and Eurasian International Relations and China and Eurasian Powers in Multipolar World Order: Security, Diplomacy, Economy and Cybersecurity (Routledge, 2023). Mher is co-editor of  China and Eurasia: Rethinking Cooperation and Contradictions in the Era of Changing World Order (Routledge, 2021). He is the author of the book China’s Belt and Road Initiative and Armenia, published in Armenian and Russian. It was shortlisted by the International Convention of Asia Scholars in Leiden, Netherlands, for its 2021 book prize. He is also the author of The New Great Power Competition in Central Asia: Opportunities and Challenges for the Gulf, a Working Paper published in 2021 by the Anwar Gargash Diplomatic Academy in the UAE.

He holds a doctorate in international relations from China’s Nanjing University. Mher Sahakyan was a 2020-2022 AsiaGlobal Fellow of the Asia Global Institute of the University of Hong Kong, where he published nine articles. He is an elected advisory board member of the International Institute for Peace, Austria, and the School of Liberal Arts & Humanities, Woxsen University, India. Mher is also a member of the British Association for Chinese Studies, the Asia Society of Hong Kong, the International Political Science Association and the Author’s Licensing and Collecting Society. He is a lecturer at the Russian-Armenian University and Yerevan State University.

Mher Sahakyan founded the Eurasian Research on Modern China and Eurasia annual international conference, which unites scholars, diplomats and officials for implanting discussions. Mher has received invitations to showcase his research as a keynote speaker at the Renmin University and Corvinus University of Budapest and as a speaker at the University of Oxford, University of Cambridge, International Institute for Peace, Moscow State University, Eastern Economic Forum, University of Hong Kong, Shanghai University, University of Edinburgh, King’s College London, Academic Council on the United Nations System, Delegation of the EU to China, City University of Hong Kong, Jawaharlal Nehru University, Hong Kong Baptist University, Istanbul Gedik University, and several others.

In a world defined by turbulent interactions between multiple orders, China is emerging as a major hub for the flow of power, ideas, and practices of international political and economic relations. As Beijing’s outreach is bourgeoning not only in the world’s remotest corners but also eyeing the depths of outer space, there is an urgent need for solid knowledge of its content, patterns, and trajectories. The Routledge Handbook of Chinese and Eurasian International Relations edited by Mher Sahakyan responds to this demand by offering a compelling, thoughtful, and granular analysis of the full spectrum of China’s investments, initiatives, and infrastructure ventures across the Eurasian expanse. Stretching from the Euro-Atlantic to the Indo-Pacific, the contributions to Sahakyan’s collection make a powerful case that it is in the complex Eurasian environments that China’s ambitions simultaneously shape and are shaped by an array of local actors and external powers. Drawing on detailed case studies, commanding knowledge, and engaging research, the volume provides a detailed account of the current likely future directions of China’s growing footprint around the world. Owing to its timely insights and impressive empirical scope, this Handbook will be an invaluable resource for scholars, diplomats, business people and students.

Professor Emilian Kavalski, NAWA Chair Professor of Complex Systems Centre for International Studies and Development Jagiellonian University in Krakow, Poland. Book Series Editor for Routledge’s “Rethinking Asia and International Relations” series.

The Handbook of Chinese and Eurasian International Relations provides a grounded analysis of the complex nuances and perspectives on the contentious and fluid geopolitics and political economy centring in the Eurasian continent’s regions. The sections that contain contributions from locally-based researchers are especially helpful. My congratulations to the editor, Dr Mher Sahakyan and the expert contributors for adding a timely addition to the literature on this important dimension of international relations and development.

Professor Linda Chelan Li, Director, Research Centre for Sustainable Hong Kong, City University of Hong Kong, China.

It is critically important for decision-makers, businesses, scholars and other international actors to understand the emerging Multipolar World Order 2.0, and the bold Routledge Handbook of Chinese and Eurasian International Relations makes an important contribution with its wide scope and timely analysis of China’s emerging role in Eurasian politics, economy and high-technology spheres. The diversity of authors makes this handbook a reliable source, as it includes research of accomplished scholars from Western, Eastern, Northern and Southern leading universities and think tanks.

Dr David Morris, Vice Chair of the UN ESCAP Sustainable Business Network for the Asia Pacific. Senior Fellow, Center for China and Globalization.