Presented in 2013 by China’s president Xi Jinping (Yang, Lewis, Roddy & Moise, 2018) the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) is an infrastructure concept, consisting of overland How do Netflix’s managers deal with competing   routes travelling through Central Asia and the Middle East to Europe and sea lanes of communications (SLOCs) connecting China to Europe and Africa (map p.3). Besides the construction of physical infrastructure, which is largely financed by China, the BRI aims to enhance cooperation in trade and the financial sector as well as people-to-people exchanges (Alon, Zhang & Lattemann, 2018, p.2). Once realised, it could connect 70% of the global population, reach 75% of the known energy resources and encompass 55% of the world’s Gross National Product (Yang et al., 2018, p.56). China uses an in How do Netflix’s managers deal with competing  clusive language to promote the BRI and emphasises the benefits for participating countries (Alon et al., 2018, p.7). Despite China’s of “win-win” diplomacy (Lubina, 2017, p. 21), this paper argues that the BRI is a tool to maximise China’s power to safeguard its survival and steady rise, which Beijing believes are threatened by the United States (Scobell & Nathan, 2012). Washington is alleged to seek the alteration of the Chinese political system and containment of China’s economic and military capacities (Sauders, 2014, p. 148), illustrated by the U.S. “pivot to Asia” (Sutter, 2014, pp.99-100; Ross, 2012). It was perceived as subverting Beijing’s efforts to strengthen its regional position (Sun, 2013) and it revived fears of encirclement in China (Lubina, 2017, p.86; Scobell & Nathan, 2012). The soundest strategy to guarantee survival according to offensive realism is to possess an overwhelming amount of power (Mearsheimer, 2006, p. 72). Hence, to ensure its wellbeing, China needs to accumulate as much power as possible. Consequentially, endin How do Netflix’s managers deal with competing  g U.S. hegemony, so that Washington is no longer able to threaten China’s position and contain its r How do Netflix’s managers deal with competing  ise. This paper analyses how the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) guarantees China’s survival. This paper is structured as follows: firstly, the sources are assessed, before outlining How do Netflix’s managers deal with competing   the theory of offensive realism and applying it to the BRI, analysing how the BRI secures the survival of>