Taiwan, Hong Kong & Macau in China’s infrastructure-diplomacy and the China Dream: Will the dominions fall?

ABSTRACT The “China Dream” is a native imagination of a great renewal of the Chinese nation. Mao Zedong had a dream to save the nation and promised the Chinese people utopian socialism tomorrow at the cost of sacrifices that needed to be borne today. Deng Xiaoping brought in economic reforms so that the Chinese people could dream of becoming rich. Xi Jinping’s China Dream has focussed upon China’s sphere of influence extending beyond its regional space. While Xi Jinping’s “China Dream” revolves around connectivity and infrastructure, using shades of affirmative, assertive and aggressive nationalism, as necessary, his Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) is likely to affect over 68 countries, 65% of the world’s population, and 40% of global GDP. At the regional level, China’s 55-km-long Zhuhai-Macau-Hong Kong Bridge is geared to transform the political geography of the South China Sea sub-region. This paper attempts to contextualise the notion of the contemporary “China Dream” and deconstruct the implications of Xi Jinping’s aggressive “infrastructure diplomacy” upon Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau.