Time published on 1 October 2023 a commentary titled "Bye Bye BRI? Why 3 New Initiatives Will Shape the Next 10 Years of China's Global Outreach" by Ruby Osman, Tony Blair Institute for Global Change.
China's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) has poured more than $1 trillion into global infrastructure faster and with less bureaucracy than Western programs, built invaluable overseas experience for Chinese firms and banks, and provided a wake-up call on the scale of Chinese ambitions. And yet, 10 years on, it remains impossible to pin down what constitutes the BRI, which is more branding exercise than masterplan.
The advantage of being a brand is that there's an inherent flexibility to the BRI. Xi Jinping has unveiled three new major initiatives: the Global Development Initiative, the Global Security Initiative, and the Global Civilization Initiative. They aim to share China's development, security, and cultural background with the world, and build consensus on China's preferred norms in the process. The political and institutional groundwork is being laid to ensure the three new initiatives will be a core part of China's foreign policy over the next decade.
