China’s investment in this new infrastructure is set to result in a large growth for China’s economy as well as throughout the rest of Asia and Europe.

It’s a China-led infrastructure project that aims to stretch around the world in order to facilitate new trade routes and improve on others.

This project is called China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and is referred to as the New Silk Road. 

It was launched in 2013 by President Xi Jinping and was originally aiming to link trade routes through East Asia and Europe. The project has now expanded to include Africa, Oceania, and Latin America. 

The Silk Road existed during the Han Dynasty ( from 206 BCE to 220 CE), and was an incredibly important trade route that passed through much of Central Asia, including Afghanistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Turkmenistan, as well as parts of South Asia like India and Pakistan. The Silk Road even extended 4.000 miles into Europe. 

This made Central Asia an epicenter of trading markets, which spurred an increase of wealth, cultural diversity, and as well as diverse religious traditions.

China traded spices, silk, jade, and other goods with the West, while the West supplied China with ivory, glass, gold, and other precious metals.

Trading through the Silk Road reached its peak during China’s Tang Dynasty (618 to 907 CE)

The crusades and the Mongols advancing from Central Asia had a negative impact on trade.

The Portuguese discovering a coastal route between Europe and Asia also contributed to the downfall of the Silk Road, since it provided an alternative trade route to the same countries. 

In the modern age, Central Asian countries are economically “isolated” with regional trading taking up a majority of the percentage of economic activity and not with foreign countries.

President Xi plans to create a “vast network of railways, energy pipelines, highways, and streamlined border crossings” going towards the west, through former Soviet Republic mountain regions, and into South Asia.

The Economic Belt: One path would be by land, traveling from Kunming, China to Venice, Italy.

The Maritime Silk Road: The second path would be a coastal route stretching from Hong Kong to Venice.

China also wants to develop a “Polar Silk Road” that would develop shipping routes to the arctic, including countries like Iceland, Norway, and through the North Pole.

President Xi envisions the Chinese currency being used internationally along the BRI.

This project has been estimated to cost $900 billion per year.

However, this project will also create thousands of jobs and spread the availability of 5G networks through Huawei.

President Xi wants to avoid the “middle-income trap,” where wages increase and quality of life improves due to low-skilled manufacturing and poor working conditions. This in-turn results in countries like China struggling to produce higher-priced, and higher quality goods for both regional and international trade. 

The U.S isolating itself and not investing as much in trade with China is resulting in a lack of Chinese influence throughout the world.

China’s plan is to build relationships with countries along these routes to take control of global trade and become a global superpower.

The money China is loaning to countries signed on to BRI-related projects may be risky; these loans are high-interest, and are being loaned out to countries that are likely not to pay China back, including Pakistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, and Mongolia. 

• China continues to loan money to these countries because it ends up being good for China no matter what.

• For example, in 2017, Sri Lanka was loaned $1.5 billion to build a port that was a key stop on the Maritime Silk Road. When Sri Lanka couldn’t pay China back, they gave China control of the port as part of a 99-year lease. 

The same situation happened with a Maritime Silk Road port built on the coast of Pakistan. 

This is being called the String of Pearls theory, where some world leaders believe China will be controlling these ports for military use.

Specifically, this theory suggests China is using these ports to establish a string of naval bases in the Indian Ocean in order to guard shipping routes throughout the region. 

Other issues with the New Silk Road relate to climate change.

China said they would stop building coal-fired power plants abroad in 2021, but various non-renewable energy sources already make up almost half of spending for the BRI. 

Being one of the largest global infrastructure projects in history, the BRI is still ongoing and faces many roadblocks ahead.

The United States aimed to compete in some way with the BRI with the "Build Back Better World Initiative," but remains to have any impact to global trade or the U.S economy.

It’s thought that the United States should be for the BRI project since it would be a way for China to “pay for infrastructure initiatives in Central Asia” that are also of interest to the U.S.