Rising Powers Quarterly, vol.3, no.2, pp.45-65, 2018 (Peer-Reviewed Journal)
With its (re-)emergence as a pivotal player in world political economy, and especially since the introduction of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) in 2013, China’s new place in the world order has driven the US and Beijing’s neighbours to find ways to deal with its rising power and influence. To counter China’s growing influence, in 2011, President Obama initiated the ‘Pivot to Asia’ strategy. However, in 2017, the Trump administration abandoned this strategy and put forward the ‘Free and Open Indo-Pacific’ policy that aims to bring Australia, India, Japan and the US together under the Indo-Pacific Partnership (IPP). The Chinese-led BRI and the US-led IPP represent competing visions for how political, economic and security structures of the Asia-Indo-Pacific region should evolve in the coming decades. This article, based on official policy documents and speeches of Chinese and IPP states’ leaders, aims to provide insights into the competing regional visions proposed by the BRI and the IPP. It argues that due to a number of reasons, the BRI has an advantage over the IPP.