The Man with a Dream and a Plan: Xi Jinping, the “Chinese Dream” and the Belt and Road Initiative

The purpose of this paper is to seek the organizing principle of China’s Belt and Road Initiative in terms of the People’s Republic of China’s overall foreign policy objectives, and, in order to do this, an understanding of the leadership of the Middle Kingdom becomes imperative. There are five generations of Chinese leaders since the proclamation of the PRC and obviously each of them has had distinct attitudes when it comes to foreign policy and the decision making process, since their actions have been the outcome of specific historical, social and geopolitical