Abstract
Considered a counterbalance to China’s Belt and Road Initiative, the G7 countries recently launched the Build Back Better World (B3W) initiative, as an alternative channel for aiding lower-income countries with infrastructure development. To better understand the strategic competition between Washington and Beijing, this essay analyzes how the Belt and Road Initiative influences China-US competition, especially in the Indo-Pacific region and in the field of the digital economy. It also focuses on the B3W initiative, providing a preliminary analysis of the Biden administration’s use of B3W to compete with the Belt and Road Initiative. Through an in-depth investigation of interactions between Washington and Beijing over the Belt and Road Initiative, this essay also helps reveal the nuanced dynamics and characteristics of US-China strategic competition in the context of the digital era. Finally, it argues that international development should not be a zero-sum game in which developing countries facing urgent infrastructure and growth concerns must choose between China and the US.
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Source
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s42533-021-00087-7
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