The Belt Road and Beyond State-Mobilized Globalization in China: 1998–2018

From 1998 to 2018, China had three political-economic crises, resulting in bureaucratic paralysis. It was at such junctures that China's leadership launched initiatives, like the Western Development Program, that mobilized state and market actors to expedite globalization and revive economic growth. In The Belt Road and Beyond, Min Ye reevaluates the common tendency to attribute China's Belt and Road to individual leaders' strategic ambitions, using state-mobilized globalization as a comparative framework and investigative tool to understand Chinese capitalism. State-mobilized globalization has helped sustain China's high-growth economy and social-political stability, while also sparking some political backlash. In order to succeed in globalization, the author argues, China's state mobilization must readapt to global circumstances. She sheds light on the tactics China used to spring from a crisis-stricken middle economy to a formidable global power, implicating not only China, but also the world.

Prologue. Encounter the silk road in Urumqi; Part I. The Theory: 1. The mobilization state: belt, road and beyond; 2. State-mobilized globalization as policy analysis; Part II. The Strategies: 3. Development of Western China; 4. Political economy of China's outbound investment; 5. The belt and road; Part III. Subnational Actors: 6. Tale of three cities; 7. Typology of Chinese companies; 8. Implications: roads and roadblocks in China and beyond.

Min Ye is Associate Professor of International Relations at Pardee School, Boston University and the recipient of fellowships from Princeton University, New Jersey, Harvard University, Massachusetts, and the National Committee on United States-China Relations, as well as institutions in Japan, South Korea, and Singapore. Her books include Diasporas and Foreign Direct Investment in China and India (2014) and The Making of Northeast Asia (2010).