Routledge Handbook of Chinese and Eurasian International Relations

Mher Sahakyan is the editor of Routledge Handbook of Chinese and Eurasian International Relations and China and Eurasian Powers in Multipolar World Order 2.0: Security, Diplomacy, Economy and Cybersecurity, which Routledge published in 2024 and 2023. He is the editor of China and Eurasia: Rethinking Cooperation and Contradictions in the Era of Changing World Order, published by Routledge in September 2021. He is the author of the book China’s Belt and Road Initiative and Armenia, published in Armenian and Russian. It was shortlisted by the International Convention of Asia Scholars in Leiden, Netherlands, for its 2021 book prize. Mher is also the author of “The New Great Power Competition in Central Asia: Opportunities and Challenges for the Gulf”, a contribution published in 2021 by the Anwar Gargash Diplomatic Academy in the United Arab Emirates. Mher is the founder and director of the China‑Eurasia Council for Political and Strategic Research, a foundation in Armenia. He is a 2024 LEWI Visiting Fellow at the David C. Lam Institute for East‑West Studies at Hong Kong Baptist University. He holds a doctorate in international relations from China’s Nanjing University. Mher Sahakyan was an AsiaGlobal Fellow at the Asia Global Institute of the University of Hong Kong from 2020 to 2022. In 2023, the Ministry of Education and Science of Armenia's Supreme Certifying Committee awarded him an associate professorship in political science. He is an elected advisory board member of the International Institute for Peace, Austria and the School of Liberal Arts & Humanities, Woxsen University, India. Mher is also a member of the International Political Science Association and the Author's Licensing and Collecting Society. He is the founder of the Eurasian Research on Modern China and Eurasia annual international conference. Mher has received invitations to showcase his research as a keynote speaker at the Renmin University, Corvinus University of Budapest, University of Calicut and as a speaker at the University of Oxford, University of Cambridge, International Institute for Peace, Moscow State University, Eastern Economic Forum, University of Hong Kong, Shanghai University, University of Edinburgh, King’s College London, Academic Council on the United Nations System, Delegation of the EU to China, City University of Hong Kong, Jawaharlal Nehru University, Hong Kong Baptist University, Istanbul Gedik University, and several others.

• List of FiguresList of TablesList of ContributorsPreface in ChineseBy Kevin LoPreface in EnglishBy Kevin LoAcknowledgmentsList of AbbreviationsIntroduction of Chinese Eurasian RelationsMHER SAHAKYAN AND ANAHIT PARZYANPart IPowers Play in Eurasia in a Multipolar World Order 2.01. China’s Position on Russo-Ukrainian War in a Multipolar World Order 2.0MHER SAHAKYAN2. US-China Competition in Eurasia: Actions and Reactions in a Multipolar World Order 2.0GREG SIMONSPART IICentral Asia3. Empowering the Dragon: Strategic Competition of China and Russia in the Central Asian Natural Gas SectorTAMAS DUDLAK4. India’s Engagement with Central Asia and Competition with China in a Multipolar World Order 2.0SRDJAN ULJEVIC5. Belt and Road Initiative’s and Central Asia’s Challenges: Case Study KazakhstanRUSLAN IZIMOV6. Rethinking China-Kyrgyzstan Relations: Addressing Challenges and ImbalancesZAMIRA MURATALIEVAPart IIIMiddle East7. Turkey and China in the Eurasian Landmass: From Bilateral Relations to the Silk Road CooperationSELÇUK ÇOLAKOĞLU8. Iran’s Look to the East Policy after US Withdrawal from Nuclear Deal: Chinese and Russian DirectionsDAVOUD GHARAYAGH-ZANDI 9. The GCC states and China: Asymmetric Relations in a Multipolar World Order 2.0MÁTÉ SZALAIPart IVEurope10. Unpacking Germany’s Contemporary Relationship with China: The Political and Economic Factors Driving the HedgeMAXIMILIAN OHLE, RICHARD J. COOK AND ZHAOYING HAN11. Relations between China and Italy in the Context of the Development of the World Market ORAZIO MARIA GNERRE12. Czech-China Relations: Future Possibilities and Policy Shifts in a Multipolar World Order 2.0ŠÁRKA WAISOVÁ13. Analysing Comprehensive Strategic Partnership between China and Serbia: Political, Economic, and Military-Technical RelationsNENAD STEKIĆ14. Poland-China Relations: Policy Shifts, Economic, Educational, and Cultural Ties in a Multipolar World Order 2.0ELŻBIETA PROŃ15. China and Greece: Political, Economic, and Cultural Relations in the Multipolar World Order 2.0GINA PANAGOPOULOUPart VAsia-Pacific16. Examining Hong Kong’s Agency within Sino-American RelationsBRIAN WONG YUE SHUN AND JASON YIP WAI CHEONG17. US-China Competition: Framing New Security Architecture in the Asia-Pacific RegionAHMED BUX JAMALI, MEHMOOD HUSSAIN AND HONGSONG LIU18. Unpacking the Discursive Strategies and Drivers of Chinese Visions of an Alternative World Order: History and Emotions in the South China Sea Dispute ERIC POMÈS AND MATTHIEU GRANDPIERRON19. Exploring the Conditions for Settling the South China Sea Territorial Dispute between China and MalaysiaYULONG DAI20. China’s Belt and Road Initiative and Japan’s Strategic Response through the AAGC, QUAD and FOIP 2.0TONY TAI-TING LIU21. China’s Belt and Road Initiative and Sri Lanka: A Geopolitical PerspectiveASANTHA SENEVIRATHNA22. Mongolia and China’s Belt and Road Initiative in Multipolar World Order 2.0CONNOR JUDGEPART VIArctic23. The Dragon and the Bear on the Polar Silk Road: The Impact of Sino-Russian Cooperation on the Great Power Competition in the ArcticJAN ŽELEZNÝPart VIIChina’s Relations with the Eurasian Economic Union and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization24. The Eurasian Economic Union–China Relations: Challenges and ProspectsGOHAR BARSEGHYAN25. Analysing CPC’s Image-Building for the EU and the US in the Context of NATO ARMINE ARZRUMANYANPart VIIIDigitalization and International Relations26. Legal Aspects of the Digital Silk Road: Trends and ChallengesMAGDALENA ŁĄGIEWSKA 27. Exploring the Competition and Technological Decoupling between the US and China: A Case Study of the Digital Silk Road and the EAEU StatesLEV M. SOKOLSCHIK AND EDUARD Z. GALIMULLINPart IXEnvironmental Politics28. Environmental Geopolitics: The Belt and Road Initiative and China’s Global InfluenceKEVIN LO29. Tackling Environmental Worries and Social Tensions in Italy and China through E-Government SystemsGIORGIO CARIDIPart XCONCLUSION30. Conclusion: The Eurasian Continent is in a Multipolar World Order 2.0 stageMHER SAHAKYANFor More from Mher Sahakyan and Routledge ReadIndex

In a world defined by turbulent interactions between multiple orders, China is emerging as a major hub for the flow of power, ideas, and practices of international political and economic relations. As Beijing’s outreach is bourgeoning not only in the world’s remotest corners but also eyeing the depths of outer space, there is an urgent need for solid knowledge of its content, patterns, and trajectories. The Routledge Handbook of Chinese and Eurasian International Relations edited by Mher Sahakyan responds to this demand by offering a compelling, thoughtful, and granular analysis of the full spectrum of China’s investments, initiatives, and infrastructure ventures across the Eurasian expanse. Stretching from the Euro-Atlantic to the Indo-Pacific, the contributions to Sahakyan’s collection make a powerful case that it is in the complex Eurasian environments that China’s ambitions simultaneously shape and are shaped by an array of local actors and external powers. Drawing on detailed case studies, commanding knowledge, and engaging research, the volume provides a detailed account of the current likely future directions of China’s growing footprint around the world. Owing to its timely insights and impressive empirical scope, this Handbook will be an invaluable resource for scholars, diplomats, business people and students.Professor Emilian Kavalski, NAWA Chair Professor of Complex Systems Centre for International Studies and Development Jagiellonian University in Krakow, Poland. Book Series Editor for Routledge’s “Rethinking Asia and International Relations” series.The Handbook of Chinese and Eurasian International Relations provides a grounded analysis of the complex nuances and perspectives on the contentious and fluid geopolitics and political economy centring in the Eurasian continent’s regions. The sections that contain contributions from locally-based researchers are especially helpful. My congratulations to the editor, Dr Mher Sahakyan and the expert contributors for adding a timely addition to the literature on this important dimension of international relations and development.Professor Linda Chelan Li, Director, Research Centre for Sustainable Hong Kong, City University of Hong Kong, China.It is critically important for decision-makers, businesses, scholars and other international actors to understand the emerging Multipolar World Order 2.0, and the bold Routledge Handbook of Chinese and Eurasian International Relations makes an important contribution with its wide scope and timely analysis of China’s emerging role in Eurasian politics, economy and high-technology spheres. The diversity of authors makes this handbook a reliable source, as it includes research of accomplished scholars from Western, Eastern, Northern and Southern leading universities and think tanks.Dr David Morris, Vice Chair of the UN ESCAP Sustainable Business Network for the Asia Pacific. Senior Fellow, Center for China and Globalization.