Impacts of the Ukraine war on China's BRI

China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) has developed an overwhelming geoeconomics orientation to Eurasia by having forged an extensive set of China-Europe and China-Central Asia rail freight routes as a transcontinental logistics system. The war in Ukraine, through its expansive repercussions across Eurasia and beyond, has created a major shock to the BRI and its Europe-facing freight train operation and Eurasia-based infrastructure projects, forcing some train routes to be rerouted and some projects to be suspended or undermined. In this lecture, I will discuss how the Ukraine War and its broader geopolitical spillover affect the BRI by pressing China to: 1) consolidate its domestic westward regional development, 2) adjust its Europe-bound freight routes while opening up new intermodal logistics lines linking Europe and Asia, and 3) navigate a riskier geopolitical environment for pursuing the next phase of the BRI.