HICCS 2025

About me:

Head of the Center for Asian Affairs University of Lodz; Professor at CAS WSMiP UL; Chinese language studies at Shanghai International Studies University; internship at the Heritage Foundation in Washington, DC; visiting professor at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences in Beijing; Principal investigator in grants supported by the NSC, Horizon 2020, MOFA, and KGHM; specializes in the rhetoric of Chinese diplomacy, political transformation of the PRC and the role of provinces in Chinese foreign policy. Author: China's Provinces and the Belt and Road Initiative (Routledge 2021).

Title:
Quasi-Centralization of Local Interests and Centre-Province Relations under the Belt and Road Initiative “Umbrella"

Abstract:
Paper for panel: The Different Dimensions of Local China’s Development (panel organised by Dominik Mierzejewski, University of Lodz, Poland)

This paper addresses the critical issue of the domestication of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). Most analyses present the BRI as China's grand strategy, based on imperial approaches supported by the PRC government. This, however, is only part of the complex picture. From a domestic perspective, the BRI is illustrated by discussing central-local dyadic relations from a post-1978 viewpoint. In the first part, the author sheds light on central-provincial government relations by discussing the continuity of fragmentation in China and the horizontal relations between provinces. The second part delves into theoretical debates over China's decentralisation-centralisation cycles, emphasising the post-Tiananmen debates initiated by Wang Huning, Wang Shaoguang, and Hu Angang, known as the new-left movement, which has been further developed under Xi Jinping. The empirical part of the paper presents a case study of practical interactions between Sichuan province and Chongqing municipalities. The paper concludes that, while the central government has taken extra measures to integrate China's fragmented economy, the question of the future 'united market' remains unanswered. As argued in the paper, the international actorness of China’s provinces allows Beijing's government to quasi-centralize local players' interests and navigate their horizontal competition in more coordinated directions. However, the fully integrated direction is seen as a possible threat to the central government's paramount position.