The newly inaugurated “One Belt, One Road” initiative had its first trip with a shipment arriving in Tehran from China . China has undertaken the endeavor to revive the ancient trade network that once helped connect the Orient with Europe.
The launch of this initiative does not only help boost economic growth for nations along the new path but allows China to access new markets for its own goods to help improve its ailing growth rate . While it appears the trade route can be mutually favorable, there are speculations that China has other underlying intentions that it hopes to achieve with the project . China is laying the groundwork for potentially securing regional hegemony by creating a neo-Sinocentric periphery structure.
The Silk Road
The Silk Road was an ancient network of commercial routes that were crucial for commerce as well as cultural and technological exchanges throughout Asia and Europe. The ancient trade network started around 220 BC . The trade route was comprised of a land path as well as a maritime course. Trade on the Silk Road greatly aided in the development of many civilizations of the time including the Chinese, Persian, European and Middle Eastern. The Silk Road was one of the early arenas for international diplomacy by facilitating political and economic interactions between civilizations far apart.
Chinese Periphery Diplomacy
More than just trade, the Silk Road helped solidify and expand the Chinese culture, influence, and military might. As trade gained momentum, China’s influence grew as well. At the time, China viewed itself as the most advanced civilization in the world and any other states, tribes, and ethnic groups were seen as uncivilized and barbaric. This supremacy belief gave rise to an international system, albeit xenophobic, known as Sinocentrism . The Sinocentric structure predated the Westphalian system that led to the creation of modern nation-states. In a Sinocentric world, China was the center of the universe, surrounded by what it perceived as vassal states.
Two millennia later, China now views the revival of the ancient trade route as imperative to securing and sustaining its future economic growth. As China seeks to reestablish its authority on the global stage, it needs to secure its periphery first. Yan Xuetong, a leading Chinese scholar, has mentioned that in order for an aspiring global power such as China to achieve hegemony, it needs to first become a regional power . Key to this aspiration is China’s diplomatic relationship with its peripheral region, which currently appears to be its primary focus. Even though China does not any longer adhere to the self-concocted theory of Sinocentrism, the structural layout that supported the system is viewed as vital to its future.
String of Pearls
China’s precipitous economic growth in the last thirty years has been exclusively contingent on foreign sources of energy . For China to continue to have unabated growth, the stability of these foreign sources have become a matter of national security. China’s energy sources are located in a volatile part of the world; mainly the Horn of Africa and the Middle East. Without these energy sources, China’s entire system can come to a screeching halt.
The “String of Pearls” theory suggested by Booz Allen Hamilton argues that China will try to populate the Indian Ocean with a civilian maritime infrastructure backed by a modern military, which will help to secure its interests . The String of Pearls hypothesis explains China’s concentrated effort to increase its access to foreign airfields and ports, upgrade its military, and create stronger ties to its periphery. Such efforts can be seen in the recent joint construction enterprise with Pakistan in the strategic port city of Gwadar as well as the creation of airstrips on the artificial islands in the South China Sea .
Hegemonic Foundation
The One Belt One Road (OBOR) initiative, similar to the ancient route, contains a land and maritime route. The land route traverses from China through energy-laden Central Asia down to Iran and through the turbulent Levant region of the Middle East before reaching Europe. The maritime passage (also known as the Spice Route) navigates from the South China Sea through the busy lanes of the Malacca Strait and enters the Bay of Bengal from which it goes onto the Horn of Africa before heading through the Suez Canal towards Europe.
At its current stage of development, China’s primarily focused on sustaining its growth rate and creating a large and stable middle-class . As a country’s economy grows, their military capabilities follow suit . Even though economic wealth has allowed the Chinese military to undertake modernization projects, the military’s primary objective so far has been to protect its territory.
Despite being recognized as the new bête noire for US strategic policy in the region, China at the moment does not appear to be a direct threat to US hegemony. However, China is slowly building up its capabilities in the South China Sea. With US military capabilities unrivaled in the world, China has been building its military strength in an asymmetric fashion . China’s current strategic defense paradigm is centered on what has been referred to as anti-access and area denial (A2/D2) . The intent is to be able to eject the US military out of the region and be able to hold it off for a sufficient period of time to achieve a certain objective i.e. invade and occupy Taiwan.
With its existing markets becoming saturated, China is seeking new opportunities to help the country protract its growth rate. The OBOR initiative is creating a potential economic reboot of China . In addition, the initiative is a rebuke to the US Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) treaty, which seeks to create an economic block in the Pacific with everyone but China. As countries join the OBOR project, China and these nations will see great economic returns. Over time as the route solidifies, China can leverage the trade dependency of many of the nations along the route into political relationships as well as curry favors, essentially creating a pseudo-tributary system.
The OBOR initiative will not only create a new economic block but also create a transcontinental organization with China at its head. With China leading the creation of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, which has become a strong rival to the World Bank and IMF (two powerful US-led financial organizations), the creation of the OBOR initiative is yet another global organizational challenge to the US. The OBOR project is the latest in a slow economic divide constructing between the world with the US on one side and China on the other.
The OBOR initiative is an epic endeavor China has undertaken to revive the ancient Silk Road that once helped connect the Orient with Europe. The launch of this initiative does not only help nations along the new path but China as well. Even though economic expansion appears to be the current intent behind the project, in the long term China is constructing a foundation to secure regional hegemony through creating a neo-Sinocentric periphery structure.