CHINA’S BELT AND ROAD INITIATIVE AND ITS IMPLICATIONS TO INDO-PACIFIC GEOPOLITICS: THE CASE OF THREE ASEAN COUNTRIES-LAOS, MYANMAR AND CAMBODIA

Emerging Powers In Indo-Pacific Geopolitics: A Political Approach, Ferdi Gucyetmez • Diren Dogan, Editör, Idea Yayınevi, İstanbul, ss.401-436, 2022

To save its fragile economy, in 1978, Chinese leadership

under Deng Xiaoping launched the historic process of reform

and opening-up to the outside world, and its achievements

gradually became visible in world politics. During the

reform process, China took some bold steps to build up its

economy by easing state control of the market. However,

due to its rigid economic structure; it could not attract desperately

needed foreign investment and access more trading

partners. Therefore, the Chinese leadership realized that the

only way out of this bottleneck was to integrate with world

economy by joining the World Trade Organization (WTO).

After many twists and turns, China secured crucial from the

United States and eventually became a full member of the

WTO in 2001. This was a milestone for China’s economy as

it gave further impetus to economic reform and opening-up.

Over the past 20 years since its accession to the WTO, th Chinese economy has surpassed Japan, becoming the second

largest economy in the world. In 2013, China announced

its Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) with the aim to further expand

its economic leverage worldwide. This study first intends

to provide a background information on the BRI, and

then examines its major components together with its motivations.

Finally, by presenting an impact analysis of some

ASEAN countries, namely Laos, Myanmar and Cambodia in

particular, it will try to identify the implications brought by

BRI to Indo-Pacific Geopolitics in general.