Research 8

What is the geographical form of the Road and Belt Initiative? How does it work?

Do not forget to mention the sources (author, year and the title of the source) of the
information you will use.

According to Meza (2018) The New Silk Road is the most ambitious geopolitical and economic
project that China’s president, Xi Jimping, put forward for consideration by Russia, Kazakhstan and
Belarus in 2013, where he indicates that it was necessary to recover and develop the old Silk Road
along which, for more than 1500 years, between great periods of boom and crisis, merchants
transited carrying goods between Asia and Europe.

The Belt and Silk Road Initiative, The Strip and the Route, or simply the New Silk Road, is the
project that, already in full swing, proposes to connect Europe, South-East Asia, Central Asia and the
Middle East, based on the old Silk Road to which a parallel sea route would be added. It directly
involves 65 countries, 60% of the world’s energy reserves, 70% of the world’s population and would
be responsible for 55% of the world’s GDP. This is a multi-billion dollar investment, in which China
would contribute US$ 1. 4 billion. According to estimates made by the Chinese government, this
project should be completed by 2049, when the country celebrates 100 years since the founding of
the People’s Republic of China.

The notion of “Strip” refers to the construction of a new land bridge between Eurasia and China,
developing economic corridors from China-Mongolia-Russia; China-Central Asia-West Asia; the
Indochina-China peninsula; China-Pakistan and Bangladesh-China-India-Myanmar. That is, a land-
based silk route taking advantage of the existing infrastructure.

While the notion “Route” refers to the silk route by sea, inspired by ancient maritime trade routes
along the coast of China, which will be expanded and extended as necessary. In summary, the route
includes a network of ports and infrastructure connecting South and Southeast Asia with East Africa
and the northern Mediterranean Sea.
“La Franca y La Ruta”, then, is the “Chinese dream” of a world with peace and cooperation, whose
process of development is shared, where the world is looked at with a proactive foreign policy, far
from the low profile of Deng Xiaping in external matters, although with high priority of internal
development. Xi Jimping goes further, when he says that the “Chinese dream is the internal meaning
of fulfillment and the development of socialism with Chinese characteristics. . . an interconnected
world” (Delgado, 2017).

In general, the New Silk Road project has two axes: the first is a land route linking China with
Pakistan, Afghanistan, Turkey, Moscow, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan,
Tajikistan and Europe via the Balkans to Paris; the second aims to reach Latin America, Africa and
the Middle East via an intercontinental sea route.

Without a doubt, this is a gigantic land and sea transport plan that will change the world’s economy,
thought and culture, making China the leading economic, technological and military power by 2050.
Unlike the Silk Road of 2,000 years ago, the Chinese proposal includes a maritime route to include
Africa and a transoceanic one to articulate South America.

References:

Meza, N. (2018, August 6). BELT INITIATIVE AND SILK ROAD. Navis Consultants. https://www
Navisconsultores. Com/iniciativa-del-cinturon-ruta-la-seda/

Delgado, D. L. (2017, 19 December). The New Silk Road and International Business Diplomacy |
Comillas Journal of International Relations Quotation magazines. https://revistas. Comillas.
Edu/index. Php/internationalrelations/article/view/7156

Student’s full name: Evelyn Andrea Jácome

Course: International Business 6to B

Date: 22 July, 2020.