Decoding China’s Grand Plan
The Evolution of the BRI, Taiwan, and the Indo-Pacific Region
The Grand Plan of China is embedded in President Xi Jinping’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). To rejuvenate the Chinese nation and its culture, the BRI emphasizes the two great Dynasties of Tang and Ming for their cosmopolitan and maritime developments. It also links to the geopolitical and geo-economic realms of Central Asia and the Indo-Pacific region—including Taiwan and the South China Sea—through the ideas of modern strategic thinkers. In this lecture, Professor Patrick Mendis will explore the prospects of China’s great revival and associated challenges for the Indo-Pacific region and the world.
Professor Patrick Mendis—a former American diplomat, military professor, and UNESCO commissioner—is the author of Peaceful War. He has lectured at Fudan, Nanjing, Peking, Renmin, Tongji, Tsinghua, Wuhan, Zhejiang, and over 25 other Chinese universities and academies. The recipient of the International Confucius Award from China, Professor Mendis has previously served as associate-in-research of the Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies at Harvard University and a Rajawali senior fellow of the Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government. The author of more than 150 books and articles, he is an academic advisor and senior fellow
of the Pangoal Institution, a global think-tank in Beijing. He has travelled to all the provinces of China and visited more than 125 countries. He is a fellow of the World Academy of Art and Science.
(The views expressed in the lecture are his own and do not represent the institutions of his affiliation in the past or present).
