In the shadow of constructed borderlands : China’s One Belt One Road and European economic governance

Abstract

In Europe, China’s One Belt One Road (OBOR) initiative primarily interacts with the institutional and physical landscape of the ‘shared neighbourhood’ between Russia and the European Union (EU). Norms and institutions in these ‘borderland’ states reflect an institutional ambiguity between the Eurasian and EU brands of market integration. In this chapter, the structures of economic governance in this region and their interaction with OBOR are examined from institutional and infrastructural perspectives. It is argued that OBOR is incompatible with current trends of European economic governance. In Ukraine and the 16+1 states, the interplay between Chinese state-controlled entities and oligarchic elites deconstructs formal norms and institutions and reinforces informal structures. Instability in the borderlands increases, while infrastructure investments extend the shadowy character of OBOR-induced practices into the future.