A discursive construction of the Belt and Road Initiative: From neo-liberal to inclusive globalization

An international consensus is emerging around the Belt and Road Initiative(BRI) proposed by the Chinese government, with a growing number of countries seeing it as a way of jointly exploring new international economic governance mechanisms. Meanwhile, with the crisis of neo-liberalism, economic globalization has arrived at a crossroad. In particular, incessant voices speak out against globalization, making the quest for a new way of promoting global development a major challenge. In this context, more and more political elites and scholars consider that the BRI opens up a possible new globalization path, amongst which inclusive globalization warrants exploration. On the basis of a brief analysis of the course and mechanism of global economic expansion and the limitations of neo-liberal globalization, along with the putting into practice of the BRI, this paper outlines some of the core features of inclusive globalization, i.e., inclusive growth with effective and efficient government regulation; inclusive infrastructure development; inclusive development paths chosen nationally that suit national conditions; inclusive participation; and cultural inclusiveness. Although these features are not sufficient to characterize fully inclusive globalization, they do identify some directions for future research, and provide elements of a discursive construction of the BRI.

Creating Inclusive Global Value Chains under the BRI from the Perspective of Public Goods Supply and Demand

Supply and demand of public goods provide a brand-new theoretical framework for research on the creation of inclusive global value chains(GVCs)under the Belt and Road Initiative(BRI).The supply of international public goods is an important positive variable for creating global value chains under the BRI,in which China and other developing countries involved,as well as their small and medium-sized enterprises(SMEs),are microscopic entities.When the BRI’s supply of instrumental,institutional,and conceptual international public goods is in equilibrium with the demand of GVC entities for public goods,the BRI creates necessary conditions for the extension of GVCs.GVCs created under the BRI are of great value in promoting inclusiveness,fair income distribution,balanced regional development,and the restructuring of international economic governance.Under the current GVC system,some developed countries have been wary about the BRI and even developed misgivings and biases.Nevertheless,developed countries may play an active role in bridging gaps in the BRI’s development and complement their respective strengths with developing countries for win-win cooperation.

SHARING THE FUTURE What can China offer for inclusive global growth?

We live in fast-moving times and an increasingly interconnected world. Globalization has reached new heightsin the 21 st century. Together with new technol- ogy, it has brought enormous benefits to many, but these gains have not been distributed evenly, which has been a source of discontent and the cause of recent backlashes against the very processes of globalization.

Chinese overseas industrial parks in Southeast Asia: An examination of policy mobility from the perspective of embeddedness

The development of overseas industrial parks is a key component of the Belt and Road Initiative and an expected experimental way of promoting inclusive globalization by inventing new forms of cooperation between China and local host countries. Policy mobility, a classic theory within international political geography addressing the connection between local and global policies, has implications for overseas industrial parks development. In this paper, we argue that policies are not easily moved directly from one place to another; instead, policies are embedded due to the role of local actors in policy mobility. This article first pro- vides an overview of seven China-Southeast Asia economic and trade cooperation zones identified by the Ministry of Commerce, and analyzes their key participants. It then discusses policy mobility by looking into the roles of revenue, land, and talent in developing these in- dustrial parks. The paper finds that these parks face challenges, such as the complicated geographical environments of host countries, huge pressure from enterprise investment capital, the lack of overseas service platforms, and underdeveloped agglomeration econo- mies. In the light of the current situation, policy suggestions for the future sustainable devel- opment of overseas industrial parks are put forward.

Tracking embodied carbon flows in the Belt and Road regions

In the past few decades, economic globalization has driven rapid growth of cross-border trade and a new international division of labor, leading to increasing inter-country embodied carbon flows. Multi-region input-output(MRIO) analysis is used to identify embodied carbon flows between major world regions, including seven regions along the Belt and Road(BR), and the spatial distribution of production-and consumption-based carbon intensities. The results show that current embodied carbon flows are virtually all from BR regions to developed countries, with more than 95% of world net embodied carbon exports coming from BR regions. Consumption in the United States and European Union countries induce about 30% of the carbon emissions in most BR regions, indicating that the former bear a high proportion of consumers' responsibility for the carbon emitted in the latter. For this reason, measuring environmental responsibilities from consumption rather than a production-based perspective is more equitable, while developing countries should be given a louder voice in the construction through dialogue and cooperation, in part in the context of the Belt and Road Initiative, of an inclusive global climate governance system.

THE GREAT DIVIDENDS OF OPPORTUNITY

Accession to the World Trade Organization allows China to have extensive involvement in trade globalization .China will mark the 15th anniversary of its accession to the World Trade Organization（WTO）on December 11.In retrospect,