12/2/2021 | Understanding the Slogan of “Belt and Road Initiative” with Jinghan Zeng

China’s Belt and Road Initiative – a multibillion-dollar project aims to build infrastructure and enhance connectivity across Eurasia and eastern Africa – has been widely seen as China’s Marshall plan. Many argue that Belt and Road as China’s “project of the century” is Beijing’s grand strategy to build a Sino-centric regional if not global order. This talk will discuss why this view is mistaken and why it is best to understand China’s Belt and Road Initiative as a vague political slogan that is open for interpretation and subject to change.

Speaker

Jinghan Zeng is Professor of China and International Studies at Lancaster University where he also directs Lancaster University Confucius Institute. Previously he was a Senior Lecturer of International Relations and Director of Centre for Politics in Africa, Asia and the Middle East (AAME) at Royal Holloway, University of London. He also lectured at University of Warwick and De Montfort University. Before his academic career, he worked for the United Nations’ Department of Economic and Social Affairs in New York City. He is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (UK). He holds degrees from the University of Warwick (PhD, completed within 2 years, 2014) and the University of Pittsburgh (MA, 2011).

Professor Zeng’s research lies in the field of politics and international relations with a focus on China. He is the author of Slogan Politics: Understanding Chinese Foreign Policy Concepts (2020) and The Chinese Communist Party’s Capacity to Rule: Ideology, Legitimacy and Party Cohesion (2015), available in Chinese translation (City University of Hong Kong Press, 2016). He is also the co-editor of One Belt, One Road, One Story? Towards an EU-China Strategic Narrative (Palgrave, forthcoming). He has published over twenty refereed articles in leading journals of politics, international relations and area studies including The Pacific Review, Journal of Contemporary China, International Affairs, JCMS: Journal of Common Market Studies, and Third World Quarterly. He frequently appears in TV and radio broadcasts including the BBC, ABC Australia, Al Jazeera, Voice of America, DR (Danish Broadcasting Corporation), Russia Today (RT), China Central Television (CCTV) and China Global Television Network (CGTN). He has been quoted in print/online publications including Financial Times, Forbes, South China Morning Post, PULSO and TODAY. He has written op-ed articles for The Diplomat, BBC (Chinese), The Conversation, Policy Forum among others.

Moderator

Deepa M. Ollapally is Research Professor of International Affairs and the Associate Director of the Sigur Center for Asian Studies at the Elliott School of International Affairs, The George Washington University. She directs the Rising Powers Initiative which tracks foreign policy debates in major powers of Asia and Eurasia.

She is a specialist on Indian foreign policy, India-China relations, Indo-Pacific regional and maritime security, and comparative foreign policy outlooks of rising powers and the rise of nationalism in foreign policy. Ollapally is the author of five books including Worldviews of Aspiring Powers (Oxford, 2012). Her current research focuses on maritime and regional security in the Indo-Pacific. She is currently writing a book on Big Power Competition for Influence in the Indo-Pacific. She has won grants from Carnegie Corporation, MacArthur Foundation, Smith Richardson Foundation, Rockefeller Foundation and Asia Foundation for work related to India and Asia.

Ollapally has held senior positions in the policy world including US Institute of Peace; and National Institute of Advanced Studies, Bangalore, India. She holds a Ph.D. in Political Science from Columbia University.