Geographies of the Institutional Economics Theory and the Belt and Road Initiative. Soft Law Agreements, Pollution Halo Effect, and the Sustainable Development Goals

The Belt and Road Initiative (the BRI) is the current developmental stage of the Chinese capitalist model, and its progress through different nations depend on the governance that China established across its own vast geography over a long period of time. The levels of the BRI international activity resemble a rapid flood rather than a slow flow, due to the availability of the Chinese state finances and private capital funds, since the start of the Deng modernisations, and China’s entry into the WTO. The growth of the Chinese capitalism presented an interesting contrast to the national economic models North America, Europe, and Asia. There has been much interest on the interplay between the nature of the Chinese capitalism, the existing institutions, and the institutions that emerged subsequently. Overall, there exists a specific understanding of the growth in China in terms of the stronger and weaker institutions, that the paper discusses. China’s own development, the BRI activities, and the uneven success of the Sustainable Development Goals across the BRI membership also form an interesting debate. Further, China’s WTO entry, the WTO framework, and the subsequent BRI agreements also significant contrasts that the paper highlights.