Rethinking the Silk Road: China’s Belt and Road Initiative and Emerging Eurasian Relations

290 Pages·2018·3.13 MB·English

by  Maximilian Mayer (eds.)

Edited by
Maximilian Mayer
R E T H I N K I N G
T H E
S I L K R O A D
China’s Belt and Road
Initiative and Emerging
Eurasian Relations
Rethinking the Silk Road
Maximilian Mayer
Editor
Rethinking the
Silk Road
China’s Belt and Road Initiative and Emerging
Eurasian Relations
Editor
Maximilian Mayer
Tongji University
German Studies
Shanghai, China
ISBN 978-981-10-5914-8 ISBN 978-981-10-5915-5 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-981-10-5915-5
Library of Congress Control Number: 2017958953
© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2018
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A
cknowledgments
This book came about as a result of a conference titled, “One Belt One
Road Initiative under the Perspective of Asian-European Cooperation,”
organized at the German Studies Center of Tongji University, Shanghai,
China, on December 3 and 4, 2015. Tongji University provided generous
funding for this event, which was aimed at deepening the academic con-
versation about and the theoretical study of China’s Belt and Road
Initiative (BR). The diverse academic and national backgrounds of the
contributing authors demonstrate the unwavering efforts of scholars
around the world to work towards an atmosphere of dialogue and mutual
understanding in order to keep peace, friendship, and a scientific spirit
alive in times when distrust and suspicion are becoming a growing force in
world affairs. I also want to express my gratitude to all helping hands for
making this volume possible, including the numerous colleagues who
helped to peer-review individual chapters, and especially to my research
assistant, Dániel Balázs, for his great organizational and editorial support.
v
c
ontents
1 China’s Rise as Eurasian Power: The Revival
of the Silk Road and Its Consequences 1
Maximilian Mayer
2 The 21st Century Maritime Silk Road and the Leading
Function of the Shipping Industry 43
Hu Zhang
3 Connectivity and International Law in the 21st
Century Maritime Silk Road 57
Guobin Zhang and Yu Long
4 Special Economic Zones: Integrating African
Countries in China’s Belt and Road Initiative 69
Alexander Demissie
5 Connectivity and Regional Integration: Prospects
for Sino-Indian Cooperation 85
Darshana M. Baruah and C. Raja Mohan
6 Africa in the Maritime Silk Road: Challenges 
and Prospects 99
Junbo Jian
vii
viii CONTENTS
7 The Belt and Road Initiative and Comprehensive
Regionalism in Central Asia 115
Ikboljon Qoraboyev and Kairat Moldashev
8 The New Silk Road for China and Japan: Building
on Shared Legacies 131
Yang Jiang
9 Knowledge-Based Institutions in Sino-Arctic
Engagement: Lessons for the Belt and Road Initiative 147
Rasmus Gjedssø Bertelsen and Ping Su
10 Chinese Investments in European Countries: Experiences
and Lessons for the “Belt and Road” Initiative 161
Philippe Le Corre
11 Former Empires, Rising Powers: Turkey’s
Neo-Ottomanism and China’s New Silk Road 177
Nora Fisher Onar
12 Knowing the World: International and Chinese
Perspectives on the Disciplinarization of Country
and Area Studies 191
Chunchun Hu
13 Modern Silk Road Imaginaries and the Co-production
of Space 205
Maximilian Mayer and Dániel Balázs
14 Berlin Looking Eastward: German Views
of and Expectations from the New Silk Road 227
Wolfgang Röhr
CONTENT S ix
15 The Geopolitical Significance of Sino-Russian
Cooperation in Central Asia for the Belt
and Road Initiative 247
Enrico Fels
16 Changing International System Structures and the Belt
and Road Initiative 269
Chuanxing Wang
Index 281
CHAPTER 1
China’s Rise as Eurasian Power:
The Revival of the Silk Road and Its
Consequences
Maximilian Mayer
China’s economic and political ascent signals an epochal change.1 The
country’s enormous growth rate has continued over almost four decades.
Measured in GDP (PPP), China overtook the U.S. in 2013 as the biggest
economy and now commands over 17% of the world economy. Although
China is still far away from reaching the per capita GDP level of the richest
group of countries,2 the center of gravity of the world economy is moving
towards Asia. As China integrates itself into global markets and production
networks, East Asia has become the central engine of the world economy,
reinstating an earlier pattern that was broken during the nineteenth century’s
“great divergence,” when the industrial revolution gave rise to a European
dominated world economy.3 Chinese companies and policy makers exert a
growing financial and regulatory influence at a regional and global level
because of accelerating investment activities into mineral extraction, fossil
fuels, and infrastructure projects around the world. Chinese leaders and
diplomats, supported by an increase of wealth and military power, have in
turn expanded the scope and ambitions of their foreign policy.
Beijing’s current proactive diplomatic agenda impacts far-flung places
and exceeds the immediate neighborhood in the Pacific and South East
M. Mayer (*)
Tongji University, German Studies, Shanghai, China
© The Author(s) 2018 1
M. Mayer (ed.), Rethinking the Silk Road,
DOI 10.1007/978-981-10-5915-5_1
2 M. MAYER
Asia. China’s economic statecraft and the attractiveness of its development
model are felt on every level of the global economic system.4 The leadership
in Beijing emphasizes that a “peaceful international environment” remains
crucial to achieve the “great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation” said to be
completed at the 100-year anniversary of the People’s Republic in 2049.5
At the same time, a new generation of leaders under President Xi Jinping
has gradually abandoned Deng Xiaoping’s principle of “biding time while
lying low.”6 Given its fast-growing economic and military capabilities, a new
“assertiveness” seems to characterize Chinese behavior in matters of territo-
rial claims, such as in the South China Sea, and the pursuit of national inter-
est.7 Yet, various studies have qualified the observation as premature that
China’s overall diplomatic practice became indeed more assertive.8
Notwithstanding the different assessments of China’s recent foreign
policy, the central question is how China’s expanding economic influence
will transform the global political landscape. What kind of great power will
China become? What is the scope of Chinese ambitions to create a new
order? Which institutional and normative consequences result from
China’s attempts to use its growing international leverage systematically?
While foreign analysts disagree about whether China is already capable of
challenging the liberal order or still only a “partial global power,”9 there is
also no consensus about the direction of China’s “grand strategy.”10 It
remains contested to which ends China’s increased power should be
employed as different and partly irreconcilable visions of international
order as well as China’s role and responsibilities circulate among Chinese
elites.11 In light of this chronic inconsistency, the idea of engineering a
revival of the ancient Silk Road marks a turning point in the debates about
China’s strategy.
Proposed in late 2013, after the leadership transition from President
Hu Jintao to President Xi, the Belt and Road Initiative (henceforth BR) is
without doubt the most ambitious foreign policy approach adopted by
China thus far. Despite a certain inherent vagueness, the associated debates
among Chinese scholars clarify the shape and direction of China’s future
trajectory. The country is perceived, first and foremost, to rise as a Eurasian
great power.12 The initiative’s two components—coined “Silk Road
Economic Belt” and “21st Century Maritime Silk Road”—form an
organic approach aimed at reaching greater economic integration between
countries along the routes which connect East Asia with Western Europe.13
The ultimate goal is to integrate all countries on the Eurasian landmass,
connecting the regions of Central Asia, South Asia, South East Asia,