Infrastructural conjunctures under the Belt and Road Initiative: the role of China-Europe Railway Express and evolution of the laptop cluster in Chongqing, China

The evolving geopolitical dynamics are positioning the deployment of transnational infrastructure as a strategic instrument for regional development, highlighting its symbolic value beyond purely economic effects. Existing discussions on state-led infrastructure in global production networks (GPNs) have primarily focused on the hierarchical interactions among economic actors centered on the infrastructure projects and resulting uneven development outcomes. However, relatively little attention has been paid to the historical and spatial conditions shaping the emergence of such infrastructure, or to its combined economic and intangible impacts on specific industrial clusters in the geopolitical narratives. Drawing upon the conjunctural GPN perspective, this study examines the role of the China-Europe Railway Express (CR Express) under the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). Specifically, we focus on its impact on the evolution of laptop cluster in Chongqing, a centrally governed municipality in western China. The paper argues that, economically, the CR Express, as a transnational infrastructure, has facilitated the expansion of laptop manufacturing in Chongqing into the European market by offering crucial advantages in transportation time and costs. Symbolically, Chongqing has repositioned itself as a growing logistics hub and assembly platform along the Eurasian economic corridor. By incorporating spatiotemporal conjunctures, this study extends the typical firm-centric cost-benefit analysis of GPN research to the broader geoeconomic value of transnational infrastructure, thereby highlighting the BRI’s role in local industrial cluster evolution. The findings shed light on how regions in the Global South can leverage infrastructural conjunctures to forge new pathways for development through production and market connectivity.