China’s Silk Road Revival

Oct 14, 2014 Shashi Tharoor

The phrase “Silk Road” evokes a romantic image – half history, half myth – of tented camel caravans winding their way across the trackless deserts and mountains of Central Asia. But the Silk Road is not just part of a fabled past; it is an important feature of China’s current foreign policy.

NEW DELHI – The phrase “Silk Road” evokes a romantic image – half history, half myth – of tented camel caravans winding their way across the trackless deserts and mountains of Central Asia. But the Silk Road is not just part of a fabled past; it is an important feature of China’s current foreign policy.

The historical Silk Road comprised an overland and a maritime route, both of which facilitated the transfer to Europe of South and East Asian goods and ideas, from Chinese tea to inventions like paper, gunpowder, and the compass, as well as cultural products like Buddhist scripture and Indian music. Likewise, the Silk Road – primarily the overland route, which also passed through the Arab world to Europe – gave China access to Indian astronomy, plants, and herbal medicines, while introducing it to the Buddhist and Islamic faiths.

Thanks to Chinese Admiral Zheng He, who steered his naval fleet across the Indian Ocean seven times in the early fifteenth century, the Chinese wok became the favorite cooking vessel of women in the southwestern Indian state of Kerala. Chinese fishing nets still dot the waters off Kochi.

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Yoshimichi Moriyama Oct 16, 2014

It would be contextually irrelevant, as Mr. Tharoor is talking about China and a Silk Road revival, to comment on Japan's Great East Asian Co-Prosperity Sphere, but no country is so much misunderstood as Japan in so far as the Second World War is concerned, and I feel like availing my- self of a little space here to correct the usual mistake, too often made and not yet corrected after sixty-nine years, that Mr. Tharoor has made. Of course I do not intend by this to whitewash or deny that Japan had imperialistic policy, but I do not think Japan should be condemned for what it did not do nor intend to do. ]

For Japan to attempt to establish the Co-Prosperity Sphere would have made the war with the United Stated and Great Britain inevitable, but the fact was that Japan wanted to extricate itself of the big war with China, though with some imperialistic interests attained there, and to do this, she entered into negotiations with the United States. Needless to say, she wanted to avoid the war with the United States by all means. For more tidbits, if interested, read my five comments to www.yaleglobal.yale.edu/Alistair Burnett/War Drums: Back to the European Future?.
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j. von Hettlingen Oct 15, 2014

China's "Silk Road initiative" seems to be Xi Jinping's pet project. In March he was in Germany to expand the Yuxinou Railway from Chongqing to the German city of Duisburg, the world's biggest inland port and an important steel production site. The transnational rail tracks will replace the once historic trails taken by medieval merchants to transport their goods between Asia and Europe. For Xi the "Silk Road initiative " is purely an economic one, aims to "to revive ancient ties of friendship in the contemporary globalized world".
The over 11,000 kilometre (nearly 7,000 mile) Chongqing-Duisburg route stretches across six countries and vast unpopulated areas in Central Asia. China sees it as a great potential to promote its industrial hubs in Chongqing and Chengdu, that are far away from the eastern coast. A daily service would be on their schedule, as train is twice as fast as seaborne transport, but only half as expensive as airfreight.
Xi's "maritime silk road" project may face resistance "at a time when China’s assertive stance in the South and East China Seas is provoking anxiety among its neighbours." Shashi Tharoor mentions the Chinese Admiral Zheng He, who "steered his naval fleet across the Indian Ocean seven times in the early fifteenth century." Tharoor says, Zhen's intention was "to build a peaceful world based on trade and commerce," while Xi's ambition today may be less altruistic.
Indeed, the "maritime silk road" initiative would cement China's role in the Indian Ocean, as both Maledives and Sri Lanka have signaled their intention to join, while Xi's was visiting. Chinese tourists have already discovered these islands as their holiday destinations.
India has been invited to join too, but hasn't made up its mind yet. Being aware of Indian sensitivities about China’s growing maritime presence in the Indian Ocean, Beijing had stressed that it is not pursuing an India containment policy nor posing a challenge to India.
Yet Xi's visit to these island states before coming to Dehli didn't go down well with India, which saw Beijing's unilateral effort to develop close links with its neighbours as going behind its back. It seems both Modi and Xi have recognised the challenges, which now offer them an opportunity to demonstrate their political acumen and leadership.
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Vikas Bhardwaj Oct 15, 2014

This is another version of the "String of Pearls" theory we have been hearing China is doing to encircle India to prevent us to expand our influence
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hari naidu Oct 14, 2014

If one has been reading the (Chinese) tea leaves…mainland China’s greatest problem is cultural isolation from its neighbors. The revival of the ancient geographical concept of the Silk Road is essentially CPC answer to globalization a la China. Development cannot be isolated …and remain Sino-Centric. It must inevitably embrace the wider-world for sustenance.
Mainland China has serious socio-economic problems of integrating its vast country-side with enclaves of industrialization along the coastal regions. Some +400 million Chinese still live below poverty level, according to official statistics. Therefore, the modern conceptualization of an ancient Silk Road project is perhaps best indicator of the lessons Chinese leadership have learnt from USA and its so-called claim to American Exceptionalism. Mainland China wants its citizens to become part and parcel of globalization – beginning with its Asian neighborhood.

When Modi (India) met Xi (PRC) in Gujrat recently, on Indian PMs 64th birthday, the two leaders not only exchanged gifts but also talked about an ancient Chinese scholar who travelled across the subcontinent to learn about Vedic Indian philosophy and culture. The two leaders were, in fact, resurrecting the history of ancient silk route caravans across the Himalayas – ie. connecting European (Byzantium) commerce through Persia (Iran) to Kabul (Hindu Kush) to Sinkiang region and China.

Instead of wars and conflicts – a Silk Road project to be financed by BRICs new development bank, if successful, will certainly change the cultural perception of +2 billion masses in the subcontinent and mainland China.
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