Globalization with Chinese characteristics: the implications of the Belt and Road Initiative for the globalization process

Abstract

Globalization has clearly done a great deal for China. Beginning in 1978, economic reforms gradually increased China’s engagement with the rest of the world. China has achieved an impressive progress thanks to its economic liberalization, but this advancement has certainly come at a cost. The economic reforms in China have been political, cultural and above all global processes, the transition to a market economy in China brought to a transformation on political and social institutions influencing also the life and the culture of Chinese people. The astonished growth of China in the last three decades also brought the country to rise its global economic and political power, redesigning the world geopolitical equilibrium and assuming a power central role. The old international order emerged at the end of Second World War seems bound to change, China is becoming the major character in the new era of globalization and the huge proposal of Belt and Road Initiative is the main evidence, a declaration of China’s intent to further raise its international position and influence. Starting from the concept of globalization and analyzing its process and changes, it will observe how the largest communist party in the world also became the world’s most dynamic and business-friendly capitalist economy, studying the value on which Chinese globalization is founded it will consider what is the current state of economic, political and social reforms in China and to what extent are these spheres inextricably intertwined in China’s course of development. It will be analyzed what is the Belt and Road Initiative launched in 2013 by the Chinese leadership and designed to become one of the most important and discussed theme within geopolitical and international sphere. The project has been described as the most ambitious economic and diplomatic project from the foundation of People’s Republic of China. The initiative actually involves more than 65 countries, approximately three-quarters of the world’s population and 40% of global gross domestic product. The Belt and Road Initiative will be not only a way to continue the China’s economic development but especially a step toward China’s further responsibility in the global order not just as a contributor but as a player that set the rules. Understanding what is Belt and Road Initiative and what it involves, it will try to assess what will be the impact of the Initiative in the globalization process, especially focusing on the change direction. It will try to analyze what there was before and what there is now and what would mean a change in the global order and a transition to a new development and globalization path at the level of institutions, values and norms. A change process is started and it will not affect only China but the world as a whole, the current global equilibrium is changing and a new one, proposed by China is ready to be implemented. What it will imply in the political, economic and social sphere it will be possible to assess only in the future but this dissertation will try to clarify potential future’s backdrops, drawing then the consequent observations.