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The late 19th and early 20th centuries were not China’s finest hour. From one of the most powerful nations in the world, it had become a decaying relic of its former greatness. Europeans, Japanese, and Americans tried hard to make places like Tianjin reflect their own cultures. Sometimes I wonder as I stroll along the Bund in Shanghai or Yingkou Road in the former British Concession in Tianjin where Harry Liu lived, how Chinese feel about these relics of the past. Do they mourn the loss of iconic foreign architecture from the Concession Era, or do they welcome the distinctly modern creations by Chinese architects?
For many foreigners looking at China, it’s easy to get stuck in the past, be it 15 years ago leading students up China’s east coast, or 2,500 years ago, when Confucius, Laozi, and Gautama Buddha (OK Gautama Buddha was India) walked this Earth at the same time. Or to remember the Ancient Silk road which spread not only goods but Chinese culture across western Asia into Europe.
But most people in today’s China don’t live in the past. They live in a very future driven present.
Tianjin is the closest port to Beijing. Located on the Bohai Sea, it has been a northern center for foreign trade in China since the Qing Dynasty, and today stands as the opening northern port of China’s 21st Century Maritime Silk Road, meeting up near Tianjin with the Eastern Land Silk Road, both a part of the “Belt and Road”, which is probably the most important 21st century economic initiative in the world today.
The “Belt and Road Initiative” aka “One Belt, One Road 一带一路” aka the “Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st-century Maritime Silk Road 丝绸之路经济带和21世纪海上丝绸之路” was first unveiled to the world by President Xi Jinping in October 2013 in Kazakhstan. A few weeks later, Premier Li Keqiang promulgated China’s vision to “help promote the economic prosperity of the countries along the Belt and Road and regional economic cooperation, strengthen exchanges and mutual learning between different civilizations, and promote world peace and development.”
We would be very naïve to think that altruism plays much of a role at all in the multi-trillion dollar Belt and Road Initiative. It’s designed to make it easier for the world to trade with China. At a national level, China would like to lessen gaps between the underdeveloped hinterlands and rust belt with the wealthier coast of China, and, by upscaling China’s status as a global leader, further enhance pride and love for the Mother Country. At an international level, they would like to create new markets for China; to allow easier access to raw materials which China will continue to need; to find ways to reuse and repurpose surplus goods, equipment, and factories as China repositions itself as a more eco-friendly producer and manufacturer of goods; to create future customers for some of its new technological innovations AND to further develop its posture and position as a global economic leader.
The Belt is not a single path; it is actually six land corridors all starting in China:
1) The first corridor extends into Mongolia and Russia.
2) The second from China through to Europe. It’s now possible to go from China to London by railroad. In mid-March 2019, Italy announced that it would join the Belt and Road Initiative, becoming the first European country to sign on.
3) China-Central & West Asia Corridor make up the third corridor; the Central Asia-China gas pipeline, linking China with the Caspian Sea is up and running.
4) In the Pakistan Corridor China has helped build seaports, highways and high-speed railways.
5) There is a China-Bangladesh-India-Myanmar Corridor.
6) The final corridor is the China-Indochina Corridor. In Cambodia, between 65 and 80% of all the energy projects across the board are Chinese invested, built, or owned.
The Road refers to a maritime sea route extending from China through Indonesia, India, East Africa, Egypt, into the Mediterranean – and which might very well extend west to South America in the not-too-distant future.
Some things to think about
- China has a unique requirement that it must be involved in all of the building of the projects it supports.
- Seven of the top ten global contractors are Chinese.
- The “Belt and Road” has been a big hit with the less democratic countries; In recent history, countries have often had to meet strict ethical standards when setting up global partnerships, but China, for the most part, does not require those kinds of ethical conditions be met:
- China has already signed agreements with Belarus, Azerbaijan, Saudi Arabia, and Thailand.
- China has been quietly developing economic connections with Afghanistan, Ukraine, Yemen, and Iraq.
- BRI is a risky plan involving several countries who may have a difficult time paying China back. In 2017, China signed a 99 year deal with Sri Lanka giving China control of the port they helped build. China also has a 40-year lease on the strategic Gwadar Port in Pakistan.
- There is a theory that China is trying to establish a chain of naval bases (“a string of pearls”) that will allow it to guard shipping routes where China has interests, thus giving it some strategic benefits.
For more in-depth reading, check out the Lowy Foundation “Understanding China’s Belt and Road Initiative” by Peter Cai https://www.lowyinstitute.org/publications/understanding-belt-and-road-initiative
Chinese Odyssey 44
Before Liberation,
Tianjin had “Concessions”
Europeans, US, Japanese
claimed possessions
The Astor Hotel
housed the Emperor Pu Yi
There was Keisslings for borscht
for baozi, Gou Bu Li
The Panda in the Room PD 