Chinese Foreign Policy toward Central Asia and the Silk Roads

On this episode, David Markey and Tim Winter address important questions based on two monographs they recently published on Chinese foreign policy toward Central Asia and the Silk Roads. (Adapted from a virtual double book launch hosted by the Central Asia Program at the Institute for European, Russian, and Eurasian Studies at the George Washington University on March 25, 2021.) President Xi Jinping has initiated major economic development programs within China and beyond its borders, including through the controversial Belt and Road Initiative which is forging worldwide connections in infrastructure, trade, energy, finance, culture and tourism. This places China at the center of a geography of overland and maritime connectivity stretching across more than sixty countries and incorporating almost two-thirds of the world’s population. However, despite China’s wide ambition, its engagement abroad and the Belt and Road Initiative will be shaped and redefined as they confront the ground realities of local and regional politics outside China. Essentially, what does it mean to revive the Silk Roads for the twenty-first century? What are the implications for U.S.-China competition and cooperation in the region?  Speakers: Daniel Markey, Author, China’s Western Horizon: Beijing and the New Geopolitics of Eurasia; Tim Winter, Author, Geocultural Power: China’s Quest to Revive the Silk Roads for the Twenty-First Century; Rodger Baker, Senior Vice President for Strategic Analysis for Stratfor. Chair: Marlene Laruelle, Ph.D., is Director, Institute for European, Russian, and Eurasian Studies; Director, Central Asia Program; Director, Illiberalism Studies Program; Co-Director, PONARS-Eurasia; and Research Professor of International Affairs at George Washington University. Moderator: Sebastien Peyrouse, PhD, is a Research Professor at the Central Asia Program in the Institute for European, Russian and Eurasian Studies (George Washington University) and a Senior Fellow with the George H. W. Bush Foundation for U.S.-China relations

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