Table of Contents

Preface: ‘One Belt, One Road’: China’s Investment Blitz Part I China’s Deep-pocket Pragmatism 1 Money and Power: China’s Bespoke Global Infrastructural Deal 2 Sign on the Dotted Line: Beijing’s Bilateralism Up Close 3 China’s Multi-layered Banking System: Deep Pockets and their Constraints Part II Beijing’s Vaulting Global Ambition 4 Global Image-building: China ’s Soft Power Deficit 5 The Messy Business of Governance 6 Incremental Pragmatism, Success Stories and Self-interest 7 Beijing’s Power-drivers: What Could Go Wrong? Or Right? Afterword: Towards 2049 Appendix I Appendix II Select bibliography Acknowledgements About the authors Index List of abbreviations viii List of figures

Promotional Information

One Belt, One Road is China’s bold plan to remake the global economy. It’s an ambitious strategy with a $2 trillion – and rising – budget. The objective? To challenge the existing economic and political world order. One Road, Many Dreams reveals the true extent of China’s ambition, analyses the impact of the One Belt, One Road initiative and assesses its chances of success and failure.

About the Author

Daniel Drache is Professor Emeritus of Political Science and a Senior Research Fellow, Robarts Centre for Canadian Studies, York University, Toronto. His work focuses on the changing character of the globalisation narrative, and its economic, social and cultural dimensions. In 2017 he gave a TED Talk on China’s One Belt, One Road initiative, and he has published widely on globalisation, citizen activism and the governance of international trade. He is the author of 20 books, including Defiant Publics: The Unprecedented Reach of the Global Citizen and Borders Matter: Homeland Security and the Search for North America. The most recent is Grey Zones in International Economic Law and Global Governance Crisis (with Lesley Jacobs). @danieldrache A.T. Kingsmith is a doctoral candidate in the Department of Politics at York University, Toronto. His research examines the effects of precarious labour, digital media, urban planning and infrastructural development on social and economic conceptions of anxiety. Most recently, he co-edited The Radical Left and Social Transformation: Augmentation and Reorganization. @atkingsmith Duan Qi received his doctorate in economics from Peking University and is currently an assistant professor at Baihang University, Beijing, where he teaches game theory as well as micro and macro-economics. In 2015–16, he was a visiting researcher in the Department of Economics, York University, Toronto.

Reviews

This book is thus far the most balanced, empirical, and profound book in English on the BRI today. Sets the bar for the many to come.
*Kevin P. Gallagher, PhD. Professor of Global Development Policy*

The book by Drache et al provides a comprehensive, accessible and updated review of the Belt and Road Initiative, which could be very useful in particular for students of international political economy.
*Qian Jiwei, Senior Research Fellow, East Asian Institute, National University of Singapore*

Meticulously researched and fluently written, One Road, Many Dreams sparkles with key insights into China’s standing in the world and its significance for the newly emerging world order. A must-read for all those interested in the contours of the Asian century.
*Jorge Heine, a Wilson Center Global Fellow and a former Ambassador of Chile to the People's Republic of China, to India and to South Africa*

An original, wide ranging and balanced overview of the BRIs scope, ambitions, elements and prospects that will be of interest to the general reader and specialist alike. Written in lively and accessible prose and from a political economy perspective, it presents vignettes of scores of projects and a penetrating set of questions about Beijing’s intentions and capacities, local and international reactions, and overall sustainability.
*Paul Evans, Professor, School of Public Policy and Global Affairs, University of British Columbia*

It looks like Napoleon was right about China. Now that the sleeping giant is awake, she is indeed moving the world. This timely book provides a detailed look at key economic instruments through which the country is building a global infrastructure and seeking to extend its influence. Keeping abreast of the massive Belt and Road Initiative and assessing its implications are vital analytical tasks for the future. Here is the essential empirical foundation.
*Louis W. Pauly, FRSC, J. Stefan Dupré Distinguished Professor of Political Economy, University of Toronto*

... combines the intellectual strengths of three scholars across the fields of economics, political science, and international relations to a broad audience... [and] provides important insights into the ways in which China and the BRI are impacting on the rest of the world
*Journal of Chinese Overseas*

Informative and stimulating, [the book] offers a refreshing perspective on the BRI that differs from the often-polarized views.
*Xiao Alvin Yang, University of Kassel, Germany*