The Political Economy of China's Belt and Road Initiative

Lei Zou, Zhiping Zhang

• Publisher: WSPC
• Year: 2018
• ISBN:
  9789813222670
• Topic: Economics
• Subtopic: Political Economy
• Index: Economics

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Silk Road was once the most important economic-cultural tie connecting the Eurasian countries before the rise of the West. In September 2013, Chinese President Xi Jinping put forward the initiative to jointly build the Silk Road Economic Belt and 21st-Century Maritime Silk Road, which is abbreviated as the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). This book analyzes the BRI through the approach of political economy and establishes the analytic framework of BRI from historical and comparative perspectives. It clearly displays the strategic considerations, future vision, constructing framework, governmental actions, latest achievements, multiple opportunities and potential risks of BRI.

As China's grand national development strategy and international cooperation initiative, the BRI will largely shape China's domestic and foreign policies in the Xi Jinping era. The book is the first academic monograph on the BRI and it enables readers to comprehensively understand this initiative and its implications to China, Eurasia and the world.

--> Contents:

• Reflections on the Ancient Silk Road
• The "Modern Silk Road" between China and the Middle East
• Understanding China's Belt and Road Initiative in the New Era
• Cooperation Framework of Building the Belt and Road
• Development Opportunities of the Belt and Road Initiative
• Government Actions on Building the Belt and Road
• New Developments of Building the Belt and Road
• Risk Management in Building of the Belt and Road

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--> Readership: Academics, policy-makers, professionals, undergraduate and graduate students interested in China's Belt and Road Initiatives, China's domestic and foreign policies in Xi Jinping Era. -->
Keywords:China;The Belt and Road Initiative;Silk Road;One Belt and One Road;Political Economy;EurasiaReview: Key Features:

• First monograph on China's Belt and Road Initiative
• Comprehensive and in-depth studies
• Rich first-hand materials

C h a p t e r

1

Reflections on the Ancient Silk Road

As the most important political, economic, cultural and religious link connecting Europe and Asia before the rise of the modern Western world, the Silk Road has become a key concept for describing the continuous communication between the East and West in the ancient times. Since the 20^th century, various economic cooperation projects either within Asia or between the two continents have been carried out in the name of a “New Silk Road”. The Belt and Road Initiative is another large-scale cooperative initiative that adopts the historical symbol of the Silk Road.

From the perspectives of geography, trade and religion, this chapter aims at portraying a historical horizon for understanding the Belt and Road Initiative in the new period, in view of the reflection over the rise and fall of the ancient Silk Road. Firstly, the evolution of the Silk Road — how did it connect ancient China with Eurasian countries via land and sea-is explored, and further, roots of the historic shift in prosperity from overland Silk Road to maritime Silk Road since the mid-to-late period of Tang Dynasty are investigated. Secondly, international trade on the ancient Silk Road is discussed from the perspectives of commodity and currency, which provides a historical coordinate for understanding the trade and economic cooperation on the modern Silk Road and the “Belt and Road” between China and the Middle Eastern countries. Thirdly, the historical course of Islamization of the ancient Silk Road is reviewed; on the basis of this, complicated interactions between the religious and political landscapes that may emerge on the modern Silk Road are discussed.

1.1Land–Sea Relations

The ancient Silk Road, consisting of multiple trade routes, connected Asia, Europe and Africa through ocean and land. In different historical periods, the land and maritime trade routes have witnessed their own ups and downs.

1.1.1Transnational Communication via Land and Sea Routes

Since the 2nd century BC, the Han Dynasty began to strengthen its business connection with the Western Regions and establish direct or indirect communication of personnel and trade with the Empires of Kushan, Parthia and Rome. Compared with the grassland route in the North and sea route in the South, the oasis route through the central plains played a more important and dominant role in the communication between the East and the West in the Han Dynasty. This route, the Silk Road in the narrow sense, started from Chang’an in the East, going through Hexi Corridor to Yumen and Dunhuang, and then traversing from Kashgar, across Pamir Mountains, through Yuezhi and Parthia, arriving at the East coast of the Mediterranean. Later, a similar arterial route on the Eurasian inland emerged, connecting the Sui/Tang Dynasties, Sassanid, Byzantium and its neighboring nomadic nations such as the Turkic people.¹

Despite its short period of reign, the Sui Dynasty made great efforts in exploring the Western Regions, which laid the foundation for the prosperity of the Silk Road in the Tang Dynasty. As is recorded in A Map of the Western Regions by Pei Ju:

From Dunhuang to the “Western Sea”, there are three routes which traverse through mountains and across rivers. The north route: starting from Yiwu in Xinjiang, through Barkol Lake, Tiele Tribe and Turkic Khanates, across the Beiliuhe River (Yili river and Chu River), to the Byzantine Empire, arriving at the Mediterranean Sea. The central route: starting from Gaochang in Xinjiang, through Karasahr, Kucha (or Qiuci), Shule (in Kashgar), across Pamir Mountains, then passing Ferghana, Sutrushana, Samarkand, Ishtika, Kushanika, to Persia, arriving at the Persian Gulf. The south route: Starting from Shanshan in Xinjiang, passing Khotan, Karghalik, Taxkorgan, over Pamir Mountains, then through Wakhan, Tocharian, Balkh, Bamiyana, Ghazni, to North Brahman (North India), arriving at the Indian Ocean. Countries and regions along the three routes all have their own road networks.²

That is to say, there are three routes extending outward from Dunhuang that arrived at the Byzantine Empire in the North, Persia (the Sasanian Dynasty) in the middle, and North Brahman (North India) in the South, reaching the Mediterranean, the Persian Gulf and the Indian Ocean, respectively. As in the Han Dynasty, there existed similar trunk routes in the Sui Dynasty. As a result, Sui enjoyed deepened knowledge of the West. It can be clearly seen that the communications between the East and the West at the time was quite intensive.

At the western end of the Silk Road, the Arabians had been expanding t...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Halftitle
• Series Editors
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• About the Author
• About the Translator
• Introduction
• Chapter 1 Reflections on the Ancient Silk Road
• Chapter 2 The “Modern Silk Road” between China and the Middle East
• Chapter 3 Understanding China’s Belt and Road Initiative in the New Era
• Chapter 4 Cooperation Framework of Building the Belt and Road
• Chapter 5 Development Opportunities of the Belt and Road Initiative
• Chapter 6 Government Actions on Building the Belt and Road
• Chapter 7 New Developments of Building the Belt and Road
• Chapter 8 Risk Management in Building of the Belt and Road
• Conclusion
• Bibliography
• Index