China Tries to Rebuild Regional Trust With Maritime Silk Road By The Editors, Sept. 12, 2014, Global Insider China’s initiative to establish a “Maritime Silk Road,” which would connect China to Europe through new and upgraded ports and maritime infrastructure, received a boost this week when Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsein Loong backed the plan. In an email interview, Geoffrey Wade, professor at the Australian National University College of Asia and the Pacific, discussed China’s goals for the Maritime Silk Road initiative. WPR: What is the proposed route of Chinas Maritime Silk Road, and how have potential partners responded to the plan? Geoffrey Wade: The “21st-century Maritime Silk Road” is a rhetorical construct promoted by China since late 2013 as part of its soft-power diplomacy to extend China’s economic and political influence across maritime Asia. Chinese Premier Li Keqiang presented this plan at a China-ASEAN gathering in Brunei in October last year as a rubric to promote “maritime cooperation, connectivity, scientific and environmental research, and fishery activities.” Given that this was announced at an ASEAN-China meeting and stress was placed on the maritime realm, the project also aims, as an unspoken background, to legitimize China’s claims to most of the South China Sea. But the endeavor is broader than this. The Maritime Silk Road initiative forms a pair with the overland Silk Road Economic Belt, announced in Kazakhstan by Chinese President Xi Jinping in September 2013. Both are premised on historical friendly trading links across Asia, with the Chinese administration wishing to use these historical precedents as economic tools today. The maritime initiative is basically a friendly Chinese formulation of what was long called the “string of pearls” strategy. There is also a clear effort being made by China to use this initiative to revive links between Cantonese and Hokkien overseas Chinese in Southeast Asia and the southeast Chinese provinces of Guangdong and Fujian—links which were long maintained through these maritime routes. While there have been supportive responses from Sri Lanka, the Maldives and ASEAN—as well as from Chinese communities in Southeast Asia, particularly through the Malaysian newspaper Nanyang Siang Pau, which has urged Malaysian states to be a part of this new endeavor—China continues to face a trust deficit across much of maritime Asia. WPR: What technical aspects are necessary to make the Maritime Silk Road a reality? Wade: Chinese journals have suggested a plethora of arrangements to promote this Maritime Silk Road. They generally center on Chinese construction of infrastructure, energy, financial systems and trade connectivity in surrounding countries, and particularly Southeast and South Asia, funded through the new Asia Infrastructure Bank. The apparent aim is to extend the Chinese economic and political influence seen in mainland Southeast Asia through the broader maritime Asia domain. WPR: What does China hope to achieve economically and diplomatically with the Maritime Silk Road? Wade: The 21st-century Maritime Silk Road trope reflects a larger Chinese aspiration to build a new China-centric economic and trade system for the Asia-Pacific. This will require a larger, wealthier and more engaged Chinese economic presence across the region. However, Western countries are also now offering financing and skills alternatives to many of the countries of maritime Asia, while Japan, India and South Korea are all seeking to establish themselves as regional powers in maritime Asia and building their links with these same countries. In light of this, as China attempts to reverse the trust deficit it has created in recent years, it will likely find that the new Maritime Silk Road has already turned into a very busy waterway. Source: worldpoliticsreview/trend-lines/14057/china-tries-to-rebuild-regional-trust-with-maritime-silk-road
Posted on: Sun, 14 Sep 2014 06:06:01 +0000
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