Abstract
Since the introduction of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) in 2013, both the mainstream media and professional analysts began to name the Initiative “China’s Marshall Plan”. While the rhetoric may simply be an eye-catching term constructed in journalist and consultancy circles, this paper examines the background and purposes behind these two grand projects in order to shed light on the similarities and the differences of their effects on the world order. By comparing the projects under five different aspects—boosting exports, exporting currency, countering a rival, fostering strategic divisions, and siphoning away diplomatic support—this paper argues that while the two projects may have similarities and aim to respond to the malfunctioning world order through macro political-economic investments and developmental aid, their outcomes (given the relative differences of the global position of rivalries—USSR in Marshall Plan; US in BRI) and the changing economic structures, could be very different. As a result, this paper concludes that it may be too early to suggest that the BRI could bring similar outcomes as the Marshall Plan, especially in competing for the global leadership in the 21st century.
Highlights
The rhetoric of comparing China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) with the U.S government’s post-war Marshall Plan first became popular in 2014 (Chen, 2014a, b) and began to receive serious consideration around 2016, when it started to become viral on mainstream media and consulting spheres
Kevin Sneader of McKinsey Hong Kong commented in an interview that “Some people have talked about this (BRI) being the second Marshall Plan... [and the Marshall Plan was merely]...one-twelfth the size of what is being contemplated in the One Belt, One Road initiative” (Ma, 2016)
We cannot compare dollar signs on proposals and oral promises of what will be done in BRI with what has already been achieved with successes and limitations already demonstrated in the history of Marshall Plan
Summary
The rhetoric of comparing China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) with the U.S government’s post-war Marshall Plan first became popular in 2014 (Chen, 2014a, b) and began to receive serious consideration around 2016, when it started to become viral on mainstream media and consulting spheres. The United States hoped to use the Marshall Plan to revive war-torn Western Europe in order to demonstrate the superiority of capitalism over communism and undermine the influence of the Soviet Union.
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