The Belt and Road Initiative

Interdisciplinary Perspectives

Edited by Wenshan Jia

The Belt & Road Initiative (BRI) is perhaps the largest global project of both domestic significance and global import proposed by China in the history of its interactions with the world. Since its unveiling in 2012, BRI has not only been embraced by more than 120 countries spanning across all the continents and endorsed by several dozen interna- tional NGOs including UN on one hand; it has been drawing an outcry or resistance by some big powers such as the US and India on the other hand. Why is all this occurring? What are the real intentions, real results, real potential and possible risks, and future fate of BRI? Despite the growingly enormous amount of discourse both mediated and non- mediated including thousands of think tank reports about it both in Chinese and other languages such as English, Russian, German, French, Italian, Japanese, Spanish and so on, a relatively little scholarship has been produced on BRI so far, especially by scholars from China which is the initiator of BRI. However, the BRI studies could be arguably the newest China/Chinese studies and the newest area/regional/ global/globalization studies all in one. Therefore, it is the goal of the present book series to advance knowledge about both China and the world from perspectives of various disciplines such as political science and economics, sociology and anthropology, communication and ecology, and so on. While proposed volumes from specific disciplines are desirable, proposed volumes on multi-disciplinary, interdisciplinary or trans-disciplinary perspectives are especially welcome in the vetting process.

This book series aim to produce both monographs and edited volumes from a variety of disciplinary perspectives such as economic science, political science, communication, sociology and anthropology, and so on and interdisci- plinary/trans-disciplinary lenses such as area studies, international/intercultural, and global/globalization studies. The titles of the first few tentative volumes include The US Involvement in the South China Sea Dispute by MA Jianying, Ph. D., Associate Professor of Political Science & International Relations, Shandong University, The Economics of the Belt and Road Initiative by CHEN Yongjun, Ph. . D.,.   Distinguished Professor of Economics, School of Business, Renmin University of China, Beijing, China, and the Belt & Road Initiative: Index Report on its Five Dimensions Connectivity by ZHAI Kun, Ph. D., Professor of International Studies and Associate Dean of the Institute of Area Studies, Peking University, Beijing, China.

The series editor is Wenshan Jia, Ph. D. & Professor of Communication and Global Studies, Interested authors are encouraged to contact Prof. Jia at jia@chapman.edu. Dr. Jia (PhD, University of Massachusetts at Amherst) is both Honorary Professor, Shandong  University, China and Professor of Communication and Global Studies, School of Communication, Chapman University, California, USA. A former Fellow of International Academy for Intercultural Research, Jia specializes in intercultural communication and is author/editor/translator of 10 books and more than 100 articles/essays/book chapters/commentaries mostly in intercultural/global communication, and Chinese culture & communication, US-China relations. He was awarded the Early Career Award by the International Academy for Intercultural Research and Wang-Fradkin Endowed Professor by Chapman University both in 2005. He serves or served on the editorial /advisory board of some top journals such as International Jour nal for Intercultural Relations, Global Media & Communication, Asian Journal of Communication, Journal of International & Intercultural Communication and so on. “Contemporary Chinese communication scholarship: An emerging alternative paradigm”, a commissioned chapter in Handbook of Media and Mass Communication Theory by Robert Fortner (Wiley-Blackwell) and Intercultural Communication: Adapting to Emerging Global Realities (Cognella) are some of his most recent works. His classic works include The Remaking of the Chinese Character and Identity in the 21st Century & Chinese Communication Theory & Research. He also serves as editor of Chinese Perspectives on Journal ism & Communication, a book series with seven volumes already published by Taylor & Francis/Routledge, UK. His fruitful ongoing research (mostly published in Chinese) centres on intercultural communication and new globalization with reference to the Belt & Road Initiative.