Paper abstract:

Growing capital over-accumulation and excessive industrial production have forced policymakers in Beijing to search for profitable outlets overseas. The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), which focuses on infrastructure connectivity projects across Eurasia, reflects these efforts. This paper focuses on BRI-led projects in Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan and theorizes it as a spatial fix, aimed to overcome the recurring problem of over-accumulation of capital. I argue that Beijing is capitalizing on the infrastructural and economic woes of host states to externalize its domestic economic woes. I further argue that Beijing's official rhetoric of a win-win is contradictory for the reason that BRI projects, although allowing China to relocate its resources successfully, have had a limited impact on the production capacity of the host states. As a result, the host states receives only accumulated stock of fixed capital and increase in debt burdens. This paper is based on published material and unstructured interviews with experts on Central Asia. The argument that China's development financing under the BRI is for its own economic development will add a novel perspective in the literature available.