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: 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 Figures

List of Tables

List of Contributors

Preface in ChineseBy Kevin Lo

Preface in EnglishBy Kevin Lo

Acknowledgments

List of Abbreviations

Introduction of Chinese Eurasian Relations

MHER SAHAKYAN AND ANAHIT PARZYAN

Part I

Powers Play in Eurasia in a Multipolar World Order 2.0

1. China’s Position on Russo-Ukrainian War in a Multipolar World Order 2.0

MHER SAHAKYAN

2. US-China Competition in Eurasia: Actions and Reactions in a Multipolar World Order 2.0

GREG SIMONS

PART II

Central Asia

3. Empowering the Dragon: Strategic Competition of China and Russia in the Central Asian Natural Gas Sector

TAMAS DUDLAK

4. India’s Engagement with Central Asia and Competition with China in a Multipolar World Order 2.0

SRDJAN ULJEVIC

5. Belt and Road Initiative’s and Central Asia’s Challenges: Case Study Kazakhstan

RUSLAN IZIMOV

6. Rethinking China-Kyrgyzstan Relations: Addressing Challenges and Imbalances

ZAMIRA MURATALIEVA

Part III

Middle East

7. Turkey and China in the Eurasian Landmass: From Bilateral Relations to the Silk Road Cooperation

SELÇUK ÇOLAKOĞLU

8. Iran’s Look to the East Policy after US Withdrawal from Nuclear Deal: Chinese and Russian Directions

DAVOUD GHARAYAGH-ZANDI

9. The GCC states and China: Asymmetric Relations in a Multipolar World Order 2.0

MÁTÉ SZALAI

Part IV

Europe

10. Unpacking Germany’s Contemporary Relationship with China: The Political and Economic Factors Driving the Hedge

MAXIMILIAN OHLE, RICHARD J. COOK AND ZHAOYING HAN

11. Relations between China and Italy in the Context of the Development of the World Market

ORAZIO MARIA GNERRE

12. Czech-China Relations: Future Possibilities and Policy Shifts in a Multipolar World Order 2.0

ŠÁRKA WAISOVÁ

13. Analysing Comprehensive Strategic Partnership between China and Serbia: Political, Economic, and Military-Technical Relations

NENAD STEKIĆ

14. Poland-China Relations: Policy Shifts, Economic, Educational, and Cultural Ties in a Multipolar World Order 2.0

ELŻBIETA PROŃ

15. China and Greece: Political, Economic, and Cultural Relations in the Multipolar World Order 2.0

GINA PANAGOPOULOU

Part V

Asia-Pacific

16. Examining Hong Kong’s Agency within Sino-American Relations

BRIAN WONG YUE SHUN AND JASON YIP WAI CHEONG

17. US-China Competition: Framing New Security Architecture in the Asia-Pacific Region

AHMED BUX JAMALI, MEHMOOD HUSSAIN AND HONGSONG LIU

18. 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 GRANDPIERRON

19. Exploring the Conditions for Settling the South China Sea Territorial Dispute between China and Malaysia

YULONG DAI

20. China’s Belt and Road Initiative and Japan’s Strategic Response through the AAGC, QUAD and FOIP 2.0

TONY TAI-TING LIU

21. China’s Belt and Road Initiative and Sri Lanka: A Geopolitical Perspective

ASANTHA SENEVIRATHNA

22. Mongolia and China’s Belt and Road Initiative in Multipolar World Order 2.0

CONNOR JUDGE

PART VI

Arctic

23. The Dragon and the Bear on the Polar Silk Road: The Impact of Sino-Russian Cooperation on the Great Power Competition in the Arctic

JAN ŽELEZNÝ

Part VII

China’s Relations with the Eurasian Economic Union and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization

24. The Eurasian Economic Union–China Relations: Challenges and Prospects

GOHAR BARSEGHYAN

25. Analysing CPC’s Image-Building for the EU and the US in the Context of NATO

ARMINE ARZRUMANYAN

Part VIII

Digitalization and International Relations

26. Legal Aspects of the Digital Silk Road: Trends and Challenges

MAGDALENA ŁĄGIEWSKA

27. Exploring the Competition and Technological Decoupling between the US and China: A Case Study of the Digital Silk Road and the EAEU States

LEV M. SOKOLSCHIK AND EDUARD Z. GALIMULLIN

Part IX

Environmental Politics

28. Environmental Geopolitics: The Belt and Road Initiative and China’s Global Influence

KEVIN LO

29. Tackling Environmental Worries and Social Tensions in Italy and China through E-Government Systems

GIORGIO CARIDI

Part X

CONCLUSION

30. Conclusion: The Eurasian Continent is in a Multipolar World Order 2.0 stage

MHER SAHAKYAN

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