China Promises $46 Billion To Pave The Way For A Brand New Silk Road
Go to Xi'an city in northwest China, and you can still hear amateur musical ensembles playing court music from the Tang Dynasty. One of the tunes is about flowers — tulips imported over the Silk Road from Europe some 1,300 years ago.
The Silk Road was a network of trade routes that allowed the exchange of goods and ideas between Asia and Europe, including between the Roman Empire and China's Han Dynasty, towards the end of the first century B.C.
Now China wants to build a new network of roads, railways pipelines and shipping lanes connecting China to South Asia, Southeast Asia, Central Asia, Africa and Europe. With this in mind, China's President Xi Jinping visited Pakistan last month, promising $46 billion in infrastructure investment.
"It's looking for national rejuvenation," says Tom Miller, a Beijing-based analyst with the financial research firm Gavekal. He says China's plan to revive the Silk Road is meant to evoke grand images of the nation at its most powerful, prosperous and cosmopolitan.
Planned Silk Road Routes
"In terms of foreign policy," he adds, "it means China is once again becoming the dominant power in Asia."
Plus, China has a surplus of cement, steel and capital to build all this, Miller notes. And many of its neighbors are in serious need of infrastructure investment.
"If China really does use its money to improve connectivity, to foster trade networks — if it plays by the rules and is seen as a positive force for economic development, then fantastic," he says. "At the same time, there is a lot of doubt as to whether China will really do this."
Some of its neighbors worry that China seeks to control and exploit them.
There's also this one other problem: The historic road as many Chinese imagine it never really existed. In fact, China didn't even have a name for it. German geographer Ferdinand von Richthofen coined the term Silk Road in the 1870s, says Fudan University historian Ge Jianxiong in Shanghai.
Throughout its history, "China had no need to export silk," Ge says. "Nor did the Chinese have any concept of profiting from silk or foreign trade."
Ge says that for most of history, the Silk Road lay impassable and unused. It was just too vast to maintain and keep open.
And China was too inward-focused to care.
"For a long time, China believed it sat at the center of the world," Ge says. "It was the celestial empire that had everything, and didn't need to rely on outsiders."
Now that China is producing more goods than it consumes, the country does need to export some of its overcapacity.
But Ge predicts that unless other countries feel they stand to profit, the new Silk Road will lead nowhere.
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Transcript
RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:
China's president visited Pakistan last month, bearing promises of $46 billion to improve the country's infrastructure. It's part of an ambitious Chinese plan to build a new Silk Road, a transcontinental trade route connecting Asia and Europe. NPR's Anthony Kuhn has this report from Beijing about why the project is so important to China.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
ANTHONY KUHN, BYLINE: Go to Northwest China's Xian city, and you can still hear amateur musical ensembles like this one. They're playing court music from the Tang Dynasty. One of the tunes is about flowers, tulips imported over the Silk Road from Europe some 1,300 years ago. Tom Miller is a Beijing-based analyst with Gavekal, a financial research firm. He says that China's plan to revive the Silk Road is meant to evoke grand images of the nation at its most powerful, prosperous and cosmopolitan.
TOM MILLER: It's looking for national rejuvenation, and what does that mean? Well, I think in terms of foreign policy, it means China once again becoming the dominant power in Asia.
KUHN: Beijing has earmarked tens of billions of dollars for the project. It plans roads, railways, pipelines and shipping lanes connecting China to South Asia, Southeast Asia, Central Asia, Africa and Europe. Miller points out that China has a surplus of cement, steel and capital to build all this, and many of China's neighbors are in serious need of infrastructure investment.
MILLER: If China really does use its money to improve connectivity to foster trade networks, if it plays by the rules and its seen as a positive force of economic development, then fantastic. At the same time, there is a lot of doubt as to whether China will really do this.
KUHN: Some of its neighbors worry that China seeks to control and exploit them. Fudan University historian Ge Jianxiong in Shanghai points out another little problem. He says the Silk Road, as many Chinese imagine it, never really existed.
GE JIANXIONG: (Through interpreter) At the time, China had no need to export silk, nor did Chinese have any concept of profiting from silk or foreign trade.
KUHN: Ge says that for most of history, the Silk Road lay impassable and unused. It was just too distant to maintain and keep open, and China was too inward-focused to care.
JIANXIONG: (Through interpreter) For a long time, China believed it sat at the center of the world. It was the celestial empire that had everything and had no need to rely on outsiders.
KUHN: Now China does have a need to export its goods, which it produces more of than it consumes. But Jianxiong predicts that unless other countries feel that they stand to profit from it, the new Silk Road will lead nowhere. Anthony Kuhn, NPR News, Beijing. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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