Abstract
The paper sheds light on and critically analyses the Belt and Road Initiative, the most ambitious financial and infrastructural plan China is promoting, inter alia, to reinforce its geopolitical role in the new global governance. After an introductive section on the evolution of the Chinese economy in the past decades, section 2 describes the background of the Initiative, with a focus on infrastructural connectivity, promotion of industrialisation in the involved areas, and collection of the capitals to be allocated for its projects. Section 3 deals with the main challenges and emerging problems, emphasising the geopolitical reactions of China's neighbouring countries to the Initiative, the delicate issues of its financial sustainability in the long term, the connected macroeconomic policies, and the evolution path of the Renminbi toward a wider internationalisation, in addition to comments on the infrastructural development. Several conclusive remarks end the work.