THE ENDLESS EMPIRE

In China, for two thousand years, the Silk Road revolutionized the world and connected many roads from China to the Roman Empire. For many dynasties, the Chinese kept the secret of silk and started to trade silk when they needed to. During the Han Dynasty, this ancient road started from the old imperial capitals which are Luoyang and Xi’an and crossed over the Yellow river. At the collapse of the Han Dynasty in 220 B.C, silk production developed and spread beyond the Chinese empire, and China no longer has the monopoly of silk production.

 

In the 15th century, the Middle empire gave up the silk road and massively invested to create new networks within continental China in order to include the far provinces. The goal was not to trade silk but new Chinese products.

 

In 2013, the Chinese president, Xi Jinping during a speech in a Kazakhstan University declared the ambitious project known as “One Road One Belt” (一带一路 (Yīdài yīlù) in Chinese). Nevertheless, often poorly translated, the right translation should rather be “The New Silk Road”. For Xi Jinping, the new Silk Road aims to increase mutual relations, tighten economic connections and breathe new life into Eurasian countries. Nowadays, most of the trade is maritime trade. Why is this project therefore the Chinese government’s priority? Why is the Chinese government going back to an old promising strategy?

 

“One Road One Belt” would concern sixty-four Asian, middle-east, African, and Central Europe Countries. Like the British Empire, the Chinese government slow and steady win the race by building ports in some places of the world.

In 2016, the port of Piraeus in Greece was sold to COSCO (China Ocean Shipping Company), a Chinese Shipping Corporation based in Hong Kong and run by the Chinese central government. It seemed that COSCO was the only one able to buy the Port of Piraeus. In reality, the purchase of the Port of Piraeus for the Chinese government provides a real gateway to the European market forming part Of China’s West conquest.

 

Sri Lanka, located in the Indian Ocean also represents a strategic location. In 2019, the Chinese government lent money to the government of Sri Lanka to build Port City. However, Sri Lanka couldn’t repay China and China suggested to rebuy Port City. “Sri Lanka was trapped in the One Belt One road project” and Port City now belongs to China. The Port City project was heavily criticized because of the negative environmental impact that it brings. China affirms it does not want to impose its model and assures that Chinese expansionism is based on a win-win strategy. According to Chinese political scientist, “domination is not linked to Chinese culture”. Nevertheless, China is using a colonial approach system for its expansion.

 

One of the main projects of the “One Road One Belt” was the construction of the China-Europe Railway Express, which is an international train line from China to Europe. The main argument for this train line was the fact it was “two times faster than boat and two times cheaper than planes”. China-Europe Railway Express also transports “goods with very short life cycles”. During this year's pandemic, while Europe lacked supplies against the pandemic, China supplied necessary equipment via the China-Europe Railway Express which was positively seen all around the world.

 

 In Chinese history, China has always been isolated, therefore China also developed its domestic market and invested to boost trade and for the first time China is domestically unified by road. Currently China is building 80,000km of highways. There’s only one road from the East to the West passing by the Xinjiang frontier, next to the Kazakhstan. China wants now to show a unified country with power.

 

The new Silk Road is also an oil road. China builds infrastructure in Kazakhstan, a strategic location with twenty million tons of oil which going to the Xinjiang region. Kazakhstan also marks the beginning of the internationalization of this great project.

 

The goal of this revival of the Silk Road is clearly to strengthen the Chinese economy all around the world. The new Silk Road not only has commercial goals, but also larger geopolitics goals. As the second largest economy on the planet, China now wants to position itself as a global benchmark. “One Belt One road” is a means of Chinese resurgence for Xi Jinping and allows China to redefine its economic and geopolitical interests. Nowadays, many Chinese cities want to be part of the new promising Silk Road.

K.Forcolin 

Sources:

• The Editors of Encyclopedia Britannica. (2020). Silk Road. Website: https://www.britannica.com/topic/Silk-Road-trade-route

• Blandine, Beaussant. (2020). Entre la Chine et l’Europe, le fret ferroviaire sur la bonne voie. Website: Supportoversea.com, https://support.ovrsea.com/entre-la-chine-et-leurope-le-fret-ferroviaire-sur-la-bonne-voie/

• Frenchpeopledaily.com.cn (2020). Les trains de Fret Chine Europe facilite le transport de fournitures antiépidémiques. Website: http://french.peopledaily.com.cn/Economie/n3/2020/0417/c31355-9680722.html

• Carles Buenacasa Pérez. Les origines fascinantes de la route de la Soie. Website: National Geographic,  https://www.nationalgeographic.fr/histoire/les-origines-fascinantes-de-la-route-de-la-soie
• Carole, Dieterich. (2019). Le Sri Lanka pris au piège des Nouvelles routes de la soie. Website: Les Echos,   https://www.lesechos.fr/monde/asie-pacifique/le-sri-lanka-pris-au-piege-des-nouvelles-routes-de-la-soie-chinoises-1148337
• Andrea, Guillot. (2016). Le port de Pirée cédé au chinois COSCO. Website: Le monde, https://www.lemonde.fr/economie/article/2016/01/21/le-port-du-piree-cede-au-chinois-cosco_4851244_3234.html
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• Picture 1 : https://theonebrief.com/chinas-global-ambition-balancing-opportunities-and-risks-in-one-belt-one-road/
• Picture 2 : https://www.raillynews.com/2020/07/cinden-gelen-ikinci-yuk-treni-12-gunde-izmit-kosekoye-ulasti/