39. Australia and the Belt and Road Initiative: Latest developments – with Dirk van der Kley

Conceptually defined as a program of connectivity enhancement and written into the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) charter in 2017, the ambitious Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) is a key pillar of the People’s Republic of China’s (PRC) foreign policy agenda. But the BRI is the subject of strong criticism, seen as it is as Beijing’s strategy to erode the liberal rules-based order and reshape regional norms in its own favour, as well as allegations of ‘debt-trap diplomacy’. What is the driving imperative behind the BRI? What are the strategic interests underlying it and how successful has the BRI been in realising them? How has the BRI evolved over the last few years? In Australia, the federal government’s response to the BRI thus far might be characterised as ‘cautious openness’, having expressed in-principle support for greater infrastructure development in the region and a policy of engagement on a case-by-case basis. But there are many concerns around project governance and transparency held not just by Australia, but by numerous other like-minded countries who have yet to substantively engage with the BRI. What does the BRI mean for Australia? How has Australia responded, and what should it do in the future? The BRI also includes a technological dimension – the Digital Silk Road – that seeks to shape norms in the regulation of emerging technologies. What has been the uptake of this technological statecraft by countries in Southeast Asia and the Pacific Islands who have ‘signed up’, so to speak, to the BRI, and what might this mean for Australia? Dirk van der Kley, Program Director of Policy Research at China Matters, joins Elena Collinson, senior researcher at the Australia-China Relations Institute, University of Technology Sydney (UTS:ACRI), to discuss the BRI, its economic and technological dimensions and the implications for Australia. Also discussed is Australia’s response to the BRI to date, and policies Australia might consider adopting in future.