The debate touches upon the critical issue of the Belt and Road Initiative domestication. Most analyses present the BRI as China's grand strategy based on imperial approaches supported by the PRC government. This, however, is only part of the complex picture. Taking the domestic perspective, the BRI is illustrated by discussing central-local dyadic relations from the longer post-1978 perspective. In the first part, the author sheds light on the central-provincial government relations by discussing the continuity of fragmentation and decentralisation in China, with horizontal competition between provinces under Deng Xiaoping and the centralisation approaches by Xi Jinping. The second part discusses the Belt and Road Initiative as a central government vertical management tool that allows Beijing's central government to centralise the local players' interests, navigate their international horizontal competition in more coordinated directions and finally secures Beijing’s paramount position. The last part of the debate, based on the three case studies of Heilongjiang-Yunnan, Chongqing-Sichuan and Guangdong-Hainan, presents the reality check and discusses the approaches to the central government initiative of the Belt and Road from the local level. The project is supported by the National Science Centre in Poland based on the agreement UMO-2017/25/B/HS5/02117.