The project 'One Belt-One Road' aims to consolidate China's rise as a superpower.
The ambitious initiative launched by Xi Jinping to connect China with the rest of the Eurasian continent may prove costly and difficult. But unlike the overland route through the Central Asian republics, the sea route may not take long to become a reality on certain stretches, as China has already built some ports on part of the route.
▲The land and sea lanes of the Chinese initiative [yourfreetemplates].
article / Jimena Puga Gómez [English version].
Following Chinese President Xi Jinping's speech in 2013 on the revitalization of the ancient Silk Road, the initiative that started out as just an idea has become the Beijing government's biggest economic challenge: a revolution that, if carried out, will change the Asian continent's passenger, freight and hydrocarbon transport infrastructure, as well as high-tech. Dubbed OBOR-OneBelt-One Road, the plan is intended to be the core topic of China's rise as a regional superpower.
The OBOR initiative is a grand plan to redesign China's strategic environment, project Beijing's economic power, secure the communist country's access to energy and mineral supplies, and boost economic growth in the west of the People's Republic. OBOR seeks to achieve these goals by fostering greater and faster connectivity between China and Europe through intermediate points in Central, West and South Asia, as well as with Russia.
For its part, the maritime route that will form one of the pieces core topic of the OBOR initiative, also known as the Silk Road of the 21st century, counts on the fact that seven of the ten largest ports in the world are in China and, as is well known, these infrastructures make the Asian giant an important exporter of port management services.
The Eastbound Maritime Silk Road will start in Fujian province and pass through Guangdong, Guangxi and Hainan, before heading south to the Strait of Malacca. From Kuala Lumpur, the Route will continue to Kolkata and Colombo, then cross the rest of the Indian Ocean towards Nairobi. From there, it will travel along the Horn of Africa, seeking to cross the strategic Gulf of Aden until it reaches the Red Sea. Beijing's plan aims to create sufficient infrastructure to enable Chinese ships to safely reach the Mediterranean after sailing through the Suez Canal. But the ambition of the People's Republic does not stop at the gates of the European Union, since China wants to reach Athens by sailing the Aegean and from there to Venice, where it will look for land routes that will make it possible to move its goods throughout the Union. Chinese investment has focused, among other things, on the port of Piraeus, with a new logistics center, and on the development of a network of logistics infrastructures through the Balkans and Hungary.
The South Pacific has also been included in this strategic map of routes devised in Beijing. Thus, the maritime Silk Road has two routes. The first, as mentioned above, originates on the east coast of China and, via the South China Sea, aims to establish strategic control of the Spratley Islands, the Strait of Malacca and the entire Indo-Pacific area, including the Bay of Bengal, in order to reach the heart of Europe. The second sea route will also cross the South China Sea to direct its ships to the coastal ports of the South Pacific. With this, China would also control the routes of the essential raw materials that come from Latin American countries.
Although this is a long-term economic project , the Chinese government has already begun the construction of certain infrastructures and the necessary negotiations with different countries. A clear example is Germany. The European Union is China's largest trading partner , while the People's Republic is the second largest provider of the Union. sample of this is Germany, which not only enjoys an excellent reputation as a reliable partner in China, but is also regarded as "Europe's trade gateway". test This is why, at a meeting in Duisburg, the world's largest inland port and an important transport and logistics hub in Europe, Chinese President Xi Jinping proposed to Germany "to work together to realize the ambitious project revival of the economic belt of the new Silk Road of the 21st century". Currently, Germany and China are connected by the Chongqing-Xinjiang-Duisburg international railroad line.
The ports built by China at Hambantota and Colombo in Sri Lanka; the China-Suez Economic and Trade Cooperation Zone in Egypt; Kazakhstan's negotiation of the right to clear its imports and exports through the Chinese port of Lianyungang; and a new alliance between ports in China and Malaysia are additional examples of China's ability to leverage its new skill as a port modernizer and manager to support its strategy.
The New Silk Road initiative is a project that will require multi-billion dollar investments in order to build smooth, safe and efficient transport infrastructures. The effects of this economic network ensure benefits not only for China, the leader of the OBOR initiative, but also for all the countries affected by it. However, the financing of project is still a question mark that should be clarified.
