The Emperor’s New Road: China and the Project of the Century

Product Description

A prominent authority on China’s Belt and Road Initiative reveals the global risks lurking within Beijing’s project of the century

“A reality check on Beijing’s global infrastructure project.”—Peter Neville-Hadley, South China Morning Post

“For all the hype and hand-wringing over how the [Belt and Road] could usher in the Chinese century, Hillman’s engaging mix of high-level analysis and fieldwork in more than a dozen countries paints a much more nuanced picture.”—Keith Johnson,
Foreign Policy
 
China’s Belt and Road Initiative is the world’s most ambitious and misunderstood geoeconomic vision. To carry out President Xi Jinping’s flagship foreign-policy effort, China promises to spend over one trillion dollars for new ports, railways, fiber-optic cables, power plants, and other connections. The plan touches more than one hundred and thirty countries and has expanded into the Arctic, cyberspace, and even outer space. Beijing says that it is promoting global development, but Washington warns that it is charting a path to global dominance.
 
Taking readers on a journey to China’s projects in Asia, Europe, and Africa, Jonathan E. Hillman reveals how this grand vision is unfolding. As China pushes beyond its borders and deep into dangerous territory, it is repeating the mistakes of the great powers that came before it, Hillman argues. If China succeeds, it will remake the world and place itself at the center of everything. But Xi may be overreaching: all roads do not yet lead to Beijing.

Review

“[T]he book points up a central, unresolved paradox of China in the world…Hillman’s book is at its most beguiling when he recounts his traveller’s tales. At one point, he finds himself in Aktau, a port on the Kazakhstan side of the Caspian Sea. This is a crucial link for the BRI, a place from which cargo and people cross the huge inland sea on ships that connect Asia with Europe.”—James Kynge,
Financial Times

“Jonathan Hillman’s new book offers a reality check on Beijing’s global infrastructure project . . . No mere desk-bound theoretician, he provides personal accounts of visits to key projects across Africa and Asia, struggles with bureaucracy and mutual suspicion at China’s borders, bringing all their logistics to life.”—Peter Neville-Hadley,
South China Morning Post

“For all the hype and hand-wringing over how the [Belt and Road] could usher in the Chinese century, Hillman’s engaging mix of high-level analysis and fieldwork in more than a dozen countries paints a much more nuanced picture.”—Keith Johnson,
Foreign Policy

“A good introduction to its chosen topic.”—Tyler Cowen,
Marginal Revolution

“Hillman’s book provides a nuanced view of world affairs. For policymakers, it shows the risks as well as the pluses of imperial outreach and, at the opposite extreme, head­ in-the-sands unilateralism. . . . It could be a valuable supplement to conventional textbooks on international studies. But it will be a rewarding eye-opener for anyone interested in the rise of China and its consequences for the United States and all nations.”—Walter Clemens,
New York Journal of Books

“Hillman lays out the terrain of the New Silk Road, which takes in over 130 countries and pledges upwards up a trillion dollars in investment, as well as the differing perspectives of it around the world. In the process he corrects some important misconceptions and argues that Beijing is positioning itself at the center of the new world order to replace Washington.”—Alec Ash,
The Wire

“A first-rate blend of analysis and journalistic reporting from the front lines of economic statecraft.”—Michael J. Mazarr,
War on the Rocks

“For all the hype and hand-wringing over how the BR! could usher in the Chinese century, Hillman’s engaging mix of high-level analysis and fieldwork in more than a dozen countries paints a much more nuanced picture.”—Keith Johnson,
Foreign Policy

“This valuable book focuses on the many forms of resistance that Chi