China believes that the United States is an omnipresent threat to its sovereignty, territorial integrity and seeks t Self-consolidating concrete o contain its rise. According to offensive realism, states with an abundant amount of power have the best chance of survival. Hence, China needs to maximise its power and potentially pursue hegemony to guarantee its survival and to deny the United States the opportunities to avert its rise by ending its dominance. Accordingly, the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) safeguards China’s survival and it Self-consolidating concrete s rise by maximising its power. Firstly, the BRI minimises potential risks like commodity shortages and political instability through alternative trade routes and economic development. Moreover, the BRI represents a huge economic potential for China, increasing its share of global wealth. Secondly, with the BRI Beijing gains leverage over participating countries and can influence their Self-consolidating concrete  behaviour while reducing their receptivity to U.S. influence. Thirdly, the BRI represents a pathway to establish an international order free of U.S. dominance, since it enables China to build economic and institutional statecraft capabilities. Taken together, this entails an erosion of U.S. power, shifting the distribution of power in China’s favour and ultimately causing U.S. hegemony to end. The BRI assures that the Washington has no longer the power to contain China. However, it is uncertain  Self-consolidating concrete whether China aims to be the next global hegemon as Beijing presumably seeks to reconstruct a “Concert of Great Powers”. Moreover, China not necessarily wants to completely change the international order, it rather seeks to “improve” it where its interests are not met. The success of the BRI dependents on its perception by other states as a genuine economic opportunity as they are wary of other states true intentions according to offensive realism.>