Prospects for BRICS Expansion and Development: Academic Discussions in China

Abstract

Currently, the questions of BRICS expansion and development is attracting priority attention not only from governments and politicians of interested countries, but also from the scientific and expert community, including in China. The author analyzed the interpretation of the problems of expansion and development of the association in the works and speeches of Chinese scientists and experts of recent times, including the evolution and prospects of the BRICS+ format proposed by China. Chinese scientists and experts believe that a balanced approach should be taken to the geoeconomic and geopolitical aspects of the expansion and development of BRICS, based on the fact that the association is not so much anti-Western as it is aimed at reforming the existing system of global governance (although this issue is controversial in the Chinese academic community character). To become the basis of a new world order, BRICS must offer other countries new development paradigms, including the formation of a new institutional environment for modernizing the world economy, the creation of an alternative format for its development to the West, new regional blocs and platforms. These development paradigms, as China believes, can be implemented within the BRICS+ format, which, with the beginning of a new wave of BRICS expansion, has by no means lost its relevance, opening up various options for the BRICS member countries to interact with other actors in the world economy. After the start of a new wave of BRICS expansion in 2023 and on the eve of the Russian BRICS presidency in 2024, it is also very important to compare approaches to the main issues of BRICS expansion and development in Russia and China.