Dominik Mierzejewski - Chinas Provinces and the Belt and Road Initiative

This book discusses the Belt and Road Initiative at the provincial level in China. It analyses the evolution of the role of local governments in Chinese foreign policy since the opening of Chinas economy in 1978, showing how the provinces initially competed with each other, and how the central government was forced to react, developing more centralised policies. Unlike other books on the Belt and Road Initiative, which focus on the international aspects of the initiative, this book demonstrates the importance of the Belt and Road in reinforcing Chinas unitary status and for managing and coordinating development at the local level as well as centre-province relations and province-to-province relations inside China.

Dominik Mierzejewski is Associate Professor at the Department of Asian Studies, Faculty of International and Political Studies and Chair of the Centre for Asian Affairs at the University of Lodz, Poland. He specialises in the politics and foreign policy of China.

Series Editor: Zheng Yongnian

Advanced Institute of Global and Contemporary China Studies,
Chinese University of Hong Kong (Shenzhen)

57 Gender Dynamics, Feminist Activism and Social Transformation in China

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58 The Struggle for Democracy in China, Taiwan and Hong Kong

Sharp Power and its Discontents

Andreas Fulda

59 The Chinese Communist Party in Action

Consolidating Party Rule

Edited by Zheng Yongnian and Lance L.P Gore

60 Development and Poverty Reduction

A Global Comparative Perspective

Edited by Zheng Yongnian and Jiwei Qian

61 Designing Emergency Management

Chinas Post-SARS Experience, 20032012

Wee-Kiat Lim

62 Chinas Environmental Foreign Relations

Heidi Wang-Kaeding

63 The Decline of the Western-Centric World and the Emerging New Global Order

Contending Views

Edited by Yun-han Chu and Yongnian Zheng

64 Chinas Provinces and the Belt and Road Initiative

Dominik Mierzejewski

For more information about this series, please visit: www.routledge.com/China-Policy-Series/book-series/SECPS

First published 2021

by Routledge

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2021 Dominik Mierzejewski

The right of Dominik Mierzejewski to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

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ISBN: 978-0-367-65488-7 (hbk)

ISBN: 978-0-367-65490-0 (pbk)

ISBN: 978-1-003-12970-7 (ebk)

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During field studies across China, the author met many friendly people who helped in his understanding of Chinas centre-province relations as presented in this book. The author is also particularly grateful to scholars from Nankai University, the Zhou Enlai School of Government, Professor Zhu Guanglei, Professor Yang Long and Doctor Zhang Zhihong whose insights and conversations brought new light to my understanding of contemporary China. Moreover, talks and seminars jointly organised between the Zhou Enlai School of Government and the Center for Asian Affairs at the University of Lodz have developed a platform for discussing local government action both in the domestic and international arena. Needless to say, conversations with my Polish Chinese Studies teachers, namely Professor Jan Rowiski, HE Ambassador Ksawery Burski and Professor Krzysztof Gawlikowski, who all know China through the Great Leap Forward, the Cultural Revolution and Deng Xiaopings, Jiang Zemins and Hu Jintaos policies, contributed most to my understanding of the Middle Kingdom.

National Science Center funds allowed the author to make fields studies in China where the author gained practical knowledge about centre-province relations, horizontal relations between provincial-level governments and their vertical and horizontal interactions within the Belt and Road Initiative. This book would not have been possible without the financial support of the National Science Center in Poland with regard to the research project The Role of Local Governments in Chinas Foreign Policy (no. UMO2017/25/B/HS5/02117).