| Summary/Abstract |
The renewed emphasis on Asia’s connectivity infrastructure has brought into focus the complex relationship between pursuing economic development through trans-state linkages and promoting political agendas. The formalizing of transit flows across the Asian space has involved financial, technical and regulatory relations bringing together the interests of actors at various levels. This article examines how these have been used by China to create new realms of influence through a study of the working of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank and Chinese markets across Central Asia, in order to demonstrate the complex role that these play in determining the contours of a relationship based on infrastructural financing and trade. The extent to which these globalized corridors and systems of governance might be impacted by the pandemic, however, remains to be seen.
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