China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and Public International Law

The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) is the People’s Republic of China’s (PRC) most important foreign policy agenda item. Even eight years after its launch, the framework of the BRI remains highly volatile and complex. The initiative, as a process, mirrors China’s domestic approach to policymaking. It reflects Beijing’s Sino-Marxist understanding of international law, as a political tool of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). The BRI relies primarily on pilot projects and legally non-binding MOUs. It fosters the emergence of China-centred networks across a wide range of policy areas. Within those networks, the PRC aims to gain international discourse power, to reinterpret established definitions within the current international legal order, which Beijing perceives to reflect power advantages of Western States after World War II. With the so-called Community of Common Destiny – the PRC’s alternative vision of international order – Beijing aims to overcome perceived biases against the PRC and fellow authoritarian and developing States. In this endeavour, the BRI provides a strategic umbrella and serves as both, a catalyst, and an accelerator