 "One Belt, One Road: China's new silk road dream")
For centuries the Silk Road, stretching across deserts, steppes and mountains, linked the imperial dynasties of China with Europe. Chinese rulers used the thoroughfares to expand their power and influence deep into Asia. Today a newly assertive Chinese empire - this time, a communist one - is undertaking a gargantuan project to re-create those ancient trade routes and the political and economic clout that came with them.
Nicknamed One Belt, One Road, China's plan is to construct roads, railways, ports, and other infrastructure across Asia and beyond to bind its economy more tightly to the rest of the world. The scheme was honoured with a prominent place in the country's latest five-year plan, released in late October, and has become a favourite subject of top leaders, who sell it as an international initiative to foster peace and prosperity.
The program will "answer the call of our time for regional and global cooperation," President Xi Jinping proclaimed during a speech at the Boao Forum in March.
Beijing has been using infrastructure projects to bolster its influence among needy nations for some time, most notably in Africa. But One Belt, One Road takes those ambitions to another level. One arm, the Silk Road Economic Belt, will pass from China to Europe through Central Asia, and the other, the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road, will better link the country to Southeast Asia, the Middle East, and Africa along vital sea lanes. Although the exact details remain fuzzy, some estimates of the programme's scale boggle the imagination. In a May speech, China's ambassador to the UK, Liu Xiaoming, boasted that the program would involve 60 countries with almost two-thirds of the planet's population.
China has a long list of reasons to promote this grand vision. It's in the interest of the country, as one of the world's biggest trading nations, to reduce the costs of transporting goods and secure access to key markets and commodities.
The infrastructure push could also boost China's role in global finance. Beijing and the financial institutions it backs are gushing loans and investments for the initiative.
Last December the country inaugurated a $40 billion Silk Road Fund to invest in One Belt, One Road projects. China's state banks are already lending big to countries along the new routes. The expansion of China-backed finance could propel Beijing's quest for greater international stature for the renminbi, which it's promoting as a global reserve currency.
Beijing wants its own companies to lead in planning and building projects it's paying for.
This powerful concoction of trade and finance could draw more emerging economies closer to Beijing, including in regions where the West would like to gain influence, such as Central Asia. For many developing countries in desperate need of upgraded roads, ports, railways, and power systems, Chinese assistance is almost irresistible. "Anytime the Chinese dangle renminbi in the face of foreign officials, they kind of swoon," says Scott Kennedy, director of the Project on Chinese Business and Political Economy at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. "All along the Silk Road they have opened their hearts to the Chinese."
Beijing's initiatives may lead to a sort of "development competition" between the US and China, in which Washington feels compelled to increase its own assistance and financing for the emerging world, as has already happened in Africa. Still, the news for the West isn't all bad. By improving infrastructure, China could help lift growth in poor nations-and the entire global economy.
The construction projects will potentially create business for engineering and other companies from the West, too. "We shouldn't freak out too much about what the Chinese are doing," Kennedy says.
Nicknamed One Belt, One Road, China's plan is to construct roads, railways, ports, and other infrastructure across Asia and beyond to bind its economy more tightly to the rest of the world. The scheme was honoured with a prominent place in the country's latest five-year plan, released in late October, and has become a favourite subject of top leaders, who sell it as an international initiative to foster peace and prosperity.
The program will "answer the call of our time for regional and global cooperation," President Xi Jinping proclaimed during a speech at the Boao Forum in March.
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In reality, though, One Belt, One Road is all about China. The programme's designed to forward Beijing's strategic and economic interests around the world - at the expense of the West's - and offer lucrative opportunities abroad for Chinese companies enduring a slowdown at home. In the end it's a boondoggle that could set back China's reform, expose its banks to financial risk, and alienate the very nations it's meant to woo.
Beijing has been using infrastructure projects to bolster its influence among needy nations for some time, most notably in Africa. But One Belt, One Road takes those ambitions to another level. One arm, the Silk Road Economic Belt, will pass from China to Europe through Central Asia, and the other, the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road, will better link the country to Southeast Asia, the Middle East, and Africa along vital sea lanes. Although the exact details remain fuzzy, some estimates of the programme's scale boggle the imagination. In a May speech, China's ambassador to the UK, Liu Xiaoming, boasted that the program would involve 60 countries with almost two-thirds of the planet's population.
China has a long list of reasons to promote this grand vision. It's in the interest of the country, as one of the world's biggest trading nations, to reduce the costs of transporting goods and secure access to key markets and commodities.
The infrastructure push could also boost China's role in global finance. Beijing and the financial institutions it backs are gushing loans and investments for the initiative.
Last December the country inaugurated a $40 billion Silk Road Fund to invest in One Belt, One Road projects. China's state banks are already lending big to countries along the new routes. The expansion of China-backed finance could propel Beijing's quest for greater international stature for the renminbi, which it's promoting as a global reserve currency.
Beijing wants its own companies to lead in planning and building projects it's paying for.
This powerful concoction of trade and finance could draw more emerging economies closer to Beijing, including in regions where the West would like to gain influence, such as Central Asia. For many developing countries in desperate need of upgraded roads, ports, railways, and power systems, Chinese assistance is almost irresistible. "Anytime the Chinese dangle renminbi in the face of foreign officials, they kind of swoon," says Scott Kennedy, director of the Project on Chinese Business and Political Economy at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. "All along the Silk Road they have opened their hearts to the Chinese."
Beijing's initiatives may lead to a sort of "development competition" between the US and China, in which Washington feels compelled to increase its own assistance and financing for the emerging world, as has already happened in Africa. Still, the news for the West isn't all bad. By improving infrastructure, China could help lift growth in poor nations-and the entire global economy.
The construction projects will potentially create business for engineering and other companies from the West, too. "We shouldn't freak out too much about what the Chinese are doing," Kennedy says.