A China e a nova rota da seda: objetivos econômicos, geoeconômicos e implicações para os países participantes

Abstract

China’s growing international projection in recent decades has significantly reshaped global trade, investment flows, and economic governance. In this context, the Belt and Road Initiative emerges as China’s main international integration strategy, combining large-scale infrastructure investment, external financing, and the expansion of trade relations with a broad group of partner countries. Officially presented as a cooperative development initiative, the project has attracted increasing attention not only for its potential to reduce trade costs and foster economic growth, but also for its strategic implications related to the expansion of Chinese influence within the international system.

This study aims to analyze how the Belt and Road Initiative combines economic objectives related to trade and investment with geoeconomic objectives linked to influence and governance, as well as to discuss its main effects and risks for participating countries. Based on a theoretical approach grounded in the literature on international trade and international political economy, the research seeks to contribute to a clearer understanding of the economic and institutional mechanisms underlying the initiative, situating it within the contemporary debate on economic integration, asymmetric interdependence, and transformations in the global economic order.