Transatlantic Responses to a Global China

China’s Belt-and-Road Initiative is probably the best articulated regional strategy for the Indo-Pacific and beyond. The scope of Beijing’s economic ambition as well as its security and geopolitical implications have spurred governments from across the Atlantic to come up with their alternative visions to help to preserve a rule-based, free and open regional order.

Seizing the opportunity for closer transatlantic cooperation on the topic, AGI’s project on “China, Germany, and the United States: The Strategic Triangle in the Transatlantic Relationship,” funded by the Fritz Thyssen Foundation, brings together government representatives, think tank experts, and corporate leaders from Germany and the U.S. This January, experts will be in Washington, DC, for a conference to discuss our governments’ responses to the Chinese practices of intellectual property rights and forced technology transfer as well as the coordination of our parallel regional strategies in the Indo-Pacific.

In anticipation of the conference, three experts discuss the broader impact of BRI and the responses from the U.S. and Europe. In “China’s BRI and Europe’s Response,” Angela Stanzel looks back on the history of BRI’s reception in Europe and details the EU’s alternative vision to creating connectivity between Europe and Asia. I-Wei Jennifer Chang examines the impact of increasing Chinese influence along the BRI on regional security in “Europe, China, and a Stable Indo-Pacific Order,” and lays out the necessity for a collective response from Europe and the U.S. Yixiang Xu’s “If Not the Chinese Belt-and-Road, Then What?” details the multitude of competing visions for the Indo-Pacific region from the U.S. and its allies and measures them against the BRI they are meant to challenge.