This master's thesis analysis the foreign policy and economic and commercial diplomacy of the People's Republic of China (PRC). It examines in more detail China's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and its dimensions in the context of increasing the PRC's international power and reputation. The paper presents the importance of the historical context of China's development for understanding contemporary Chinese foreign policy and analyzes the complexity of Chinese foreign policy, its processes, actors and activities for the contextualization of the BRI. The thesis offers an overview of the key (geo)political and (geo)economic challenges that China has been facing since the 1970s, that is throughout the four decades of remarkable economic growth following political and economic reforms and measures, its accession to the World Trade Organization, the implementation of the »going out« policy and the recent economic slowdown. It argues that China's foreign policy has become more decisive since the international financial and economic crisis in 2008, especially after Xi Jinping come into power. In this context the master's thesis illustrates that the BRI is, on the one hand, a response to China's domestic needs and international challenges, and, on the other, China's medium- to long-term ambitions to reshape the world order. In its last part, the paper notes that although the BRI can be described as the most comprehensive implementation of PRC economic diplomacy, its success as a possible strategy to materialize an alternative model of globalization or as a mechanism to expand China's spheres of influence is highly questionable.
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