As China consolidates its emerging position as a world power, the major dynamics of this process involves China’s projection of its influence in investments and other geostrategic interests into surrounding regions from Africa through South and Southeast Asia and into Central Asia. The “Complementing and Competing Visions of China’s Belt and Road Initiative” conference held in spring 2019 at the University of Virginia brought these collaborative and competing interests into focus by exploring China’s means and objectives, contrasting them with perspectives from surrounding regions. The dialogues that began at the conference stimulated the formation of a number of collaborative working groups across schools to address the following topics: Pan-area Study of BRI, Historical Antecedents of BRI, Data Collections and Environmental Issues, Global Smart Cities, and Global Ethics and Governance.
The project is funded by the College and Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, the Center for Global Inquiry and Innovation, the East Asia Center, and a gift from Mr. James H. T. McConnell.
