What is Belt and Road Initiative

The geostrategic approach refers to China's method to rise as global power through worldwide trade expansion and the development of its military and naval capabilities. It creates clusters of countries interlinked as China's trade partners, thus being assets to its global ascent. China's importance in global trade is a function of its partners' behavior embracing its trade mechanism. The edges connecting nodes are multidirectional, implying that countries are as much interested in their China-induced interlinkages as they are in their partnership with China. This results in China's centrality, a quality gained from being dominant in trade partnerships in terms of numbers and significance. This chapter examines the approach, process, and historical, geographic, and behavioral components that China uses in its ascent as central node in the international trade network. It explores how underlying dimensions making China's national character conjointly devise its behavior in global trade.