China's BRI Framework of Economic Partnership in ASEAN to Advanced Manufacturing and Infrastructural Development in the Region

Abstract

The China's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) aims to strengthen its economic partnership with ASEAN. The ASEAN has emerged as an economic and trade centre in the Asia-Pacific region. China wants deeper geopolitical connectivity toward the ASEAN region to expand its BRI projects and infrastructural development. This research explores China's geoeconomic interest in the region of ASEAN. Beijing is strengthening its 21st Century Maritime Silk Road Initiative (MSRI) in the Asia-Pacific Region (APR). The chapter implies a qualitative analysis to describe China's stronghold in the region under BRI projects. Moreover, the chapter uses the deductive method to elucidate the research findings in the context of China's BRI projects in ASEAN countries. The article also uses a theoretical approach to discuss the main research gap in the study of various literatures. These literatures are critically used in this research to evaluate the BRI projects' benefits and prospects. As a result, China has become one of the major economies investing on a larger scale in the ASEAN region, but the Philippines has recently criticized such projects in the Southeast Asian region.