Competing Visions
How Infrastructure is Reshaping the Eurasian Supercontinent
Tag Competing Visions
18 Items, Page 3 of 4
Asia’s Competing Visions
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.
Where Does China’s Belt and Road Go?
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.”
China to Shape International Trade Via Belt and Road
The Belt and Road initiative’s potential impact on international trade — cargo volume and velocity, shipping routes, supply chain reliability, and transparency — has strategic benefits and risks for the United States because of its dependence on importing raw and strategic materials for manufacturing processes, and exporting finished goods to emerging markets where consumer catchment areas are expected to be created or expanded.
Special Report: Asian Infrastructure and Trade
Asia’s fast growth rates could falter without massive investment in infrastructure, while China — which looks set to benefit from the U.S. withdrawal from the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade pact — is readying more lending firepower, the Financial Times reports in a special series on Asian infrastructure and trade. As part of the series, FT emerging markets editor James Kynge explains how infrastructure finance could create new alliances across the region and draws upon Reconnecting Asia’s maps. Read his piece here, and explore the infrastructure ambitions of regional powers through Reconnecting Asia’s “Competing Visions” map series here.