The Silk Road: A Political Marketing Concept for World Dominance

Abstract

One Belt, One Road–-the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road–-was presented in autumn 2013 and has become the central foreign policy project of Chinese President Xi Jinping. It is a result of the ‘Chinese Dream’ and provides a China-led framework for economic and political cooperation that is based on a huge intercontinental infrastructural network. The New Silk Road would connect large parts of Asia, Europe and Africa. It is being propagated by China's leadership and academic elite so as to have the greatest public relations impact possible. It is accompanied by new financing institutions and is being realised by political agreements on international infrastructural projects of strategic importance. The main global players–-the US, Russia, India and the EU–-have not yet found clear responses to China's world power ambitions. Clashes of interests are foreseeable.