Belt and Road Initiative with new tracks? China's initiative and Japan's response

Public seminar with Werner Pascha, Professor at the Institute of East Asian Studies (IN-EAST), University of Duisburg-Essen and Jørgen Delman, Professor of China Studies, Dept. of Cross-Cultural and Regional Studies, University of Copenhagen

China's Belt and Road Initiative is meant to create new connectivities and new infrastructure across the world. The Chinese leadership's idea is that the Chinese experience in development can be transferred elsewhere and help stimulate economic growth in the countries willing to join the BRI. While the BRI has quickly cascaded across the world embracing investment and construction across the continents, in the air, and on the oceans, there have been concerns in some quarters, not least in many OECD countries, that China's ambitions are much bigger than expressed publicly. It appears that China is engaged in creating the foundations for a new world order. Countries and organizations like the US, Japan, and the EU are actively contemplating how to tackle the challenge. This seminar will focus on how China has rolled out the initiative and how Japan has reacted. The questions asked: What does China really want? Is it for real? Can China engage the world in its initiative? How will it be governed? What are Japan´s plans? What is hidden behind Japanese concepts like the Partnership for Quality Infrastructure (PQI)?  What will the relationship between Chinese and Japanese approaches be: complementary, cooperative, competitive or even confrontational?

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Speakers and timetable

Bio: Professor Werner Pascha works on the Japanese and the Korean economies, particularly on their institutional changes. He also works on regional and transregional economic relations, including their institutional aspects. He has published on trade issues, the regional financial crisis, the Asian Development Bank, the Chiang Mai Initiative on financial stability, leading him to an interest in Japan´s little-known multilateral infrastructure strategy. Over the years, he has held various visiting positions in Japan and Korea.

Bio: Professor Jørgen Delman works on China's politics, recently on energy and climate change politics, on China's urban climate governance, and more generally on political change in China. He has worked with international development assistance to China for decades as well as with China's assistance to African and Asian countries. This has stimulated his interest in BRI and China's global positioning as a major developing country and a new major world power. He is a frequent public speaker on China's Belt and Road Initiative.