China 2015: Implementing the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road

CONGIU, FRANCESCA

2016-01-01

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Abstract

The present article sees as the most important political-economic development in China in the year 2015 the fulfilment of the first phase of a gargantuan political-economic project: the Silk Road Economic Belt and 21st-Century Maritime Silk Road, known also as the «One Belt, One Road» (OBOR) initiative. This project, launched by the Chinese government in 2013, was institutionalized in a programmatic document in 2015. Therefore, the present article analyses the OBOR initiative from several different perspectives. First, the Silk Road project is presented as the current phase of a long-term political-economic strategy aimed at internationalizing the Chinese state-owned and private enterprises. Then, the article examines the OBOR’s programmatic official document, published during the year under review, and goes on to explore the OBOR’s geographic extension and its implementation. Finally, the article deals with the OBOR’s main financial mechanism, known as the Asian Infra-structure Investment Bank, and with the Western countries’ divided reactions when confronted with the opportunity to become founding members of this new China-led multilateral financial institution.