Is China's new 'Belt and Road' initiative a concrete globalisation hand inside a silken glove?

In Medieval time the 'Silk Road' conveyed valuable silk and spices along a trans-continental journey from China, through the Persian empire and to the emerging trade markets of Europe. Today, China's big trade initiative is the 'Belt and Road' scheme designed to integrate China's trade markets even further into the world economy.

President Xi Jinping of China's largest enterprise to date is to promote his 'Belt and Road' initiative with governments around the world. A massive multi-billion dollar plan is to develop new ports and shipping routes (the 'Road' bit) to integrate the Chinese economy with those of countries around the world, but particularly in Asia, Africa and South America. At a time of increasing threats of protectionism, it is a bold plan to encourage further globalisation and the integration of national economies. It is partly seen as China's attempt to develop a counterweight to the US/European trading and financial chain that dominates the western hemisphere of the globe. Others argue it is a means by which China can utilize its vast financial reserves - the result of 20 years of being the manufacturer to the world and taking in receipts far in excess of its expenditure. Yet others see it as China laying the foundations for integrating its economy with many emerging markets (the 'Belt' bit) in order to sustain its growth and influence - both economic and political - well into the rest of the century; a flexing of the Chinese muscle. This article in the Guardian lays out the thinking behind the 'Belt and Road' initiative, although it was followed up just a few days later by this article in the same paper, detailing the EUs negotiators withdrawing from involvement on the basis that the environmental and sustainability elements of the proposals are not sufficiently well-formed.

Some argue that the plan is a showcase for the benefits of globalisation, insisting that Chinese investment can help develop the infrastructure of LIC economies and stimulate trade relationships. Others see it as tying less powerful nations into an economic and political dependency in the face of a dominant Chinese economy - a not-so attractive feature of globalisation. Whichever it is, the power of the Chinese economy still has further to run in the coming decades; whether it will manifest itself in this plan, or another one, China's outward-reaching future after decades of relative isolation is only just commencing.

This article in the Economist further examines the strategy: