This report identifies the management of one conundrum above all else as the key to the BRI’s fortunes from a Chinese perspective: the ability to retain sufficient support from the world’s governments and institutions as a means of both underpinning its business case and heading off the possibility of geo-economic and geostrategic competition.

The Australian Government opposes China’s massive Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), largely on the grounds that it may help to end the United States-led order in the Indo-Pacific region and beyond.