One Belt One Road is a Chinese trade initiative conceived in 2013, and China is courting other world leaders to support it. It’s not only about Chinese interests and trade but about projecting Chinese power in a different way. What’s so fascinating about this to me is the way it’s being romanticized. There’s even a narrative aimed at kids. The state’s China Daily newspaper is running a web series of an American father telling his kid about “China’s idea which belongs to the world.” Here are the basics of the idea:
-China wants to put 100s of billions of dollars in infastructure around the world, reviving ancient trade routes
-Ports, pipelines, railways, industrial hubs, would integrate more than 60 countries and 60% of the world’s population.
-This road would boost the Chinese economy, increase Chinese access to oil, establish trading partners for the future