Unveiling the Real Motivations: How Domestic Economic Constraints Drove China's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI)

Abstract

This article provides an analysis of the domestic economic constraints that have motivated China to embark on Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). The BRI is an ambitious development strategy aimed at promoting economic integration among countries across Asia, Europe, and Africa. While there has been significant academic and policy debate about the BRI's geopolitical implications, less attention has been paid to the domestic economic factors that driven China to embark on this initiative. This article fills this gap by examining how domestic economic constraints, such as the challenge of surplus capital, dependency on global demand, the problem of industrial overproduction, the fear of middle-income trap, and addressing the underperforming western region motivated China to launch the BRI. Using unstructured interviews, the article shows that the BRI is China’s strategy to mitigate domestic economic constraints by spatial reorganization. Building on this, the paper argues that geopolitics can be a consequence of the BRI, not the motivation. Overall, this article contributes to a better understanding of the BRI.