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

International Perspectives on the Belt and Road Initiative investigates the most significant global-scale international trade expansion and capital investment programme since the Second World War. This book focusses on the multi-national perspectives of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) in order to interrogate the Chinese government’s representation of it as a symbol of "peace, cooperation, development and mutual benefit." With specific focus on the interrelationship between geopolitics, infrastructure investments and urban regional development, the book reflects on 12 countries’ experiences in depth, including those ofIran, Pakistan, Brazil, Thailand, Indonesia, Japan and Ethiopia, specificly to their economic development levels, political systems, power dynamics and socio-environmental issues. The book clarifies and contributes new knowledge on the nature of BRI concerning its relationship to globalism, neo-colonialism, the notion of developed vs developing countries andtheir institutions andmacro-micro benefits and impacts. In doing so, the book offers a balanced accountof theantagonistic geo-political narrative of socio-political conflict and the collaborative framework of real socio-economic flows and development. The book will appeal to academics, researchers and policy-makers with an interest in the BRI and its impacts on politico-economic development and urban, regional and spatial systems in the Indo-Pacific and beyond.

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

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.