People’s Republic of China Considers a New Silk Road

China’s vast and beautiful Silk Road. Image: P Bibler via Flickr CC.

The Silk Road was the name for the legendary trade route that connected China with the ancient west, dating as far back as the Roman Empire. Supposedly, trade was frequent and lucrative. It was the path Marco Polo is supposed to have followed.

In reality, the Silk Road never really existed. There wasn’t any kind of need or desire on China’s part to maintain anything resembling an actual road that far. Silk was rarely exported, and the Chinese didn’t need to import much. But that doesn’t mean there wasn’t trade between East and West, there certainly was, or that the Silk Road isn’t an important idea. A romantic idea, but an important one.

Now though, Chinese president Xi Jinping is talking about investing $46 billion in infrastructure investment in other countries in order to develop a new, much more concrete, Silk Road.

The idea is to make trade between East and West that much easier, but also East and East, and the project would involve connections to Central and Southeast Asia, as well as Europe and Africa. The focus will likely be on exports from China though, as the nation lacks enough consumers for all the goods it produces.

If enacted, the projected series of roads, pipelines, and shipping lanes could help shore up infrastructure in countries that have a hard time maintaining them on their own. In addition to consumer goods, China has the excess cement, steel, and capital to invest in such a project.

Nothing is set in stone yet, and there is some concern over whether or not the plan will actually go through, as it would require a lot of paperwork to make sure it could happen. There are also concerns by some smaller nations that such a project would be a smokescreen to allow China to better manipulate or control its neighbors.