Against the prevailing narrative of the The Belt and Road as a top-down strategy to spread China’s geopolitical influence, there is the BRI’s impact through its first decade as emanating «from the middle out and bottom up» via transport-enabled corridors traversing a large number of regions within and across national territories.

Since the inauguration of China’s Belt and Road Initiative in 2013, its bold vision has become China’s most important global economic and foreign policy instrument.