ABSTRACT
The People’s Republic of China’s (PRC) ambitious Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) has caused significant debate amongst scholars and practitioners of regional and global security. For some, BRI represents the most comprehensive test so far of the post-Cold War order centred on the United States. Since the beginning of the “reform and opening” era in 1978, there have been a number of important manifestations of such “steering” in domestic and foreign policy contexts that have resulted from “authoritative” remarks by whomever the CCP leader is. Accordingly, the development of urban hubs or networks undertaken under the Great Western Development extended to six core economic corridors central to BRI. The Silk Road Economic Belt aims to intensify connections between Xinjiang and Central and South Asia via the China-Central Asia-West Asia Corridor and the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor. India’s full rebuke of BRI, however, came earlier, just prior to the convening of the inaugural Belt and Road Forum at Beijing in May 2013.
