Abstract: Why are all roads leading to Beijing? Existing pool of literature in both the academic and public discourse represent two polarised camps of opinions with regards to China and the Belt and Road Initiative. In this lecture, speaker presents Chinese foreign policy as a theoretical ground in understanding the Initiative. Central to this argument is that development direction of the Initiative must be examined in the first instance from a Chinese perspective given the instructing capacity and the ideologically driven character of the Chinese Communist Party. With a particular focus on China’s immediate western neighbours, speaker will also discuss project reality, associated risks, and recent research on Chinese loans in Central Asia.

Bio: Niva Yau Tsz Yan is a graduate from the University of Hong Kong and an Associate Research Fellow at the OSCE Academy. She was a Research Assistant at the Belt and Road Strategic Research Centre in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Her most recent research compared the operational reality of the Belt and Road Initiative in Central Asia and South East Asia.