China’s flagship foreign policy effort could reshape the world’s digital, trade, and transport networks and political ties for decades to come.
The China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) is a flagship project under China’s Belt and Road Initiative. Announced in 2015, CPEC has expanded to include as much as $62 billion of investments. In Pakistan, there have been a range of reactions. CPEC advocates have characterized it as a “game-changer.” Others have warned that it is a new form of Chinese “imperialism.”
Earlier this month, the leaders of Japan and India paused to lay the foundation stone for a high-speed railway. Shinzo Abe was visiting Narendra Modi’s home state, where a 500-kilometer bullet train using Japanese financing and technology will link Mumbai and the industrial city of Ahmedabad. Modi called Japan “a true friend” and the train a “symbol of new India.” Abe agreed, saying, “The project symbolizes India-Japan friendship.” It also illustrates the high-stakes competition underway to connect the Eurasian supercontinent. China has stolen the spotlight, but other regional powers are not standing still.
“I really like China” a diplomat told us a few months ago, “they are the only ones around with a plan for the 21st century.” That plan – China’s Belt & Road Initiative (BRI) – has, however, raised ample concern, from Asia all the way to the Berlin and Washington.
According to a report issued by Xinhua, the Chinese state news agency, in August, Xi Jinping in addition to his role as Party Secretary, President, Chair of the Central Military Commission, and of about half of the all-important Small Leading Groups which co-ordinate policy, is also China’s “Story Teller in Chief.”
Since the rise of Europe’s colonial powers in the sixteenth century, Asia’s economic activity has been concentrated on its coastlines. But that could change as China, Japan, Russia and other regional powers connect Asia internally and with Europe by reaching across the Eurasian landmass.