Views on China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) vary significantly depending on where they are generated. While most of the Western Hemisphere perceives the BRI as a massive international, investment-lending program for the Chinese to exert and project influence and geopolitical power, in Southeast Asian nations in particular, there are alternative narratives that highlight the value of collaboration between China and the expanded Indo-Pacific region, especially in the most developing countries.

The dynamics of Chinese engagement within the Indo-Pacific region through the BRI as a flagship policy is bringing about a new set of social interactions that remain poorly understood by Western citizens without access to non-English literature. For actors in the ASEAN region, people-to-people, NGO-to-NGO, city- to-city and many other sub-national ties are driving transformation in the region. Such sub-national engagement has impacts on institutional stability, prospects for trade, innovation and economic development.

This webinar discussed some of these alternative drivers, while breaking down key aspects of the BRI that are typically underscored in the Western context, in order to better understand development in the ASEAN region.

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