Still a work in progress: the ongoing evolution of the role conception underlying China’s Belt and Road initiative

Ten years after its proposition, the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) has become a cornerstone of China’s foreign policy. It paved the way for China to develop into an active global power shaping global norms and institutions. Applying a role theoretical perspective, the key principles and mechanisms at the heart of the BRI are outlined as well as the dynamic evolution of both the BRI narrative and key contents by highlighting in the Belt and Road Forums of 2017 and 2019. The paper argues that the BRI constitute a unilateral change of China’s role conception for global economic gov7ernance (GEG). This interpretation of the BRI demonstrates that China is now presenting a model for GEG to other countries and that both the contents and the way it is presented continues to evolve. In this regard, a role theoretical reading of the BRI highlights both dynamic as well as pragmatic elements of foreign policy making under Xi Jinping.