Connecting Asia and BeyondĪmong regional powers seeking to compete with China’s BRI, Japan has pursued the most wide-ranging and comprehensive set of plans, spanning from the island nation westward through Asia, reaching as far as the African continent. Simply put, who controls which port, road or railway and where, who is in debt to whom, and which country is providing the best public infrastructure will have a lasting effect on the balance of power both in Asia and globally. To be left behind is to risk not only losing political favour in neighbouring countries, but potentially the ability to protect one’s regional security interests. The Washington, D.C.-based Center for Strategic & International Security’s Reconnecting Asia project describes these efforts as competing visions, reflecting an evolving understanding among nations that it matters who builds in Asia. Since China launched its much-vaunted Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) in 2013, Japan as well as ASEAN, India, Iran, Russia, South Korea, the European Union, the United States, and Turkey have all announced new infrastructure plans of their own, indicating that the race is on to reap the social, political, and security benefits of filling Asia’s capacious multi-trillion dollar infrastructure investment gap. This seeming rapprochement, however, is undercut by heightened competition between the two regional powers, notably in the realm of infrastructure development, to acquire and maintain influence within and beyond the continental neighbourhood. switching from competition to collaboration” in a bilateral relationship that seemed to have reached its lowest point following a series of historical and territorial conflicts in recent years. The occasion marked the first official visit by a Japanese leader to China since 2011, with Abe characterizing it as a “historic turning point. By the time Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe wrapped up his three-day visit to Beijing on October 27, companies from both countries had signed agreements to co-operate on more than 50 infrastructure projects, including building a smart city in Thailand.
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