China's Western Horizon
Subtitle: Beijing and the New Geopolitics of Eurasia
Publisher: Oxford University Press, Incorporated
Published: 2020
Language: eng
Number of pages: 336
ISBN-13: 9780190680190
Subjects: China, foreign relations, 1949-; South asia, foreign relations; China, foreign relations, asia; Asia, central, politics and government; Middle east, foreign relations
Description: "This book explains how China's new foreign policy initiatives like the vaunted "Belt and Road" are being shaped by local and regional politics outside China and assesses the political implications of these developments for Eurasia and the United States. It depicts the ways that President Xi Jinping's China is zealously transforming its national wealth and economic power into tools of global political influence and details these developments in South Asia, Central Asia, and the Middle East. Drawing from extensive interviews, travels, and historical research, it describes how perceptions of China vary widely within states like Pakistan, Kazakhstan, and Iran. Eurasia's powerful and privileged groups often expect to profit from their connections to China, while others fear commercial and political losses. Similarly, statesmen across Eurasia are scrambling to harness China's energy purchases, arms sales, and infrastructure investments as a means to outdo their strategic competitors, like India and Saudi Arabia, while negotiating relations with Russia and America. The book finds that, on balance, China's deepening involvement will play to the advantage of regional strongmen and exacerbate the political tensions within and among Eurasian states. To make the most of America's limited influence in China's backyard (and elsewhere), it argues that U.S. policymakers should pursue a selective and localized strategy to serve America's aims in Eurasia and to better compete with China over the long run"--