What exactly is ’one belt, one road’? | Chatham House
▻https://www.chathamhouse.org/publication/twt/what-exactly-one-belt-one-road
The phrase ‘one belt, one road’ has become a staple of discussions about China’s foreign policy and approach to the global economy. This is not least because the concept looks something like a signature foreign policy initiative of Chinese president Xi Jinping.
But the challenge has been unpicking exactly what the ‘one belt, one road’ slogan means. In English the name is clunky and somewhat misleading, a literal translation from a typically concise Chinese phrase yi dai yi lu, which in turn condenses two related ideas.
The first is the construction of a Silk Road economic belt spreading from western and inland China through Central Asia towards Europe, resonant of historical Eurasian ‘silk roads’ which reached their height during China’s Tang dynasty (618-906). Likewise, the second idea – a 21st century maritime Silk Road – is inspired by historical maritime trading routes from coastal China through the South China Sea and beyond. It will extend these routes to continents and countries where trade volumes are currently small, but growing, such as East Africa.