21st Century Maritime Silk Road Research Articles

Constructing New International Relations Between China and Its Neighbors: A Constructivist Analysis of the Impact of the Belt and Road

The Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st-Century Maritime Silk Road spearheaded by General Secretary Xi Jinping offers a practical framework for fostering a fresh approach to international relations between China and its neighboring countries. This study thoroughly examines how the Belt and Road Initiative contributes to shaping a new form of international relations between China and its neighboring regions from a constructivist viewpoint. This is achieved through qualitative research, literature analysis, and inductive methodologies. Under the constructivist perspective, The Belt and Road Initiative has transformed the dynamic between China and its neighboring nations on various levels. When looking at it from a horizontal perspective, the focus is on highlighting the unique aspects and qualities of international interactions, such as "common development", "mutual respect", and "harmonious coexistence".Looking at things from an aerial viewpoint, the Belt and Road Initiative delves into a fresh approach to China's relationships with its neighboring countries across three levels: national, subnational, and regional. China prioritizes establishing innovative international relations with neighboring countries through the Belt and Road initiative to stabilize domestic growth and navigate foreign relations amidst the changing development scenario. Faced with intricate regional dynamics stemming from recent historical shifts, China must steadfastly advance the "Belt and Road" project to cultivate a conducive neighboring atmosphere, fostering the development of a shared human destiny.

Can the ‘21st Century Maritime Silk Road’ initiative improve the opening-up of China’s coastal provinces?

The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) serves as China’s blueprint and major strategy for opening-up in the new era. This study theoretically examines three mechanisms of the ‘21st Century Maritime Silk Road’ (CMSR) to promote the opening up of provinces and cities along the line, including the allocation, integration, and circulation mechanisms. Using 2009–2021 data from prefecture-level cities, this study designed a quasi-natural experiment based on the CMSR by combining propensity score matching (PSM) and differences-in-differences (DID) methods. The study findings show CMSR significantly promoted China’s opening-up. Various robustness tests demonstrate that our findings are robust. Mechanism analysis shows that CMSR improved China’s opening-up by promoting the flow of production factors, integrating domestic and international product markets, and accelerating circulation. Heterogeneity analysis shows that CMSR strongly influences large, coastal, and nonprovincial cities. These findings provide a new perspective for evaluating the policy effects of the 21st CMSR.

Innovative strategies and forward thinking on China’s digital maritime law enforcement

In the digital era, the limitations of traditional maritime law enforcement models have become apparent. China actively promotes digital maritime law enforcement and has conducted thorough exploration across policy, technology, and legal domains. The primary legal foundation is the Coast Guard Law, bolstered by policy initiatives like the “21st Century Maritime Silk Road”, the “Maritime Community with a Shared Future” strategy, and the “Technology Empowers the Marine” plan. By coupling law and technology, China’s digital maritime law enforcement has innovatively established a three-dimensional enforcement model of “online + offline” at sea. It utilizes artificial intelligence to assist in maritime law enforcement decision-making, employs big data sharing for collaborative maritime law enforcement, and advances maritime compliance enforcement by digital technology. Through case analysis and effectiveness assessment, China’s digital maritime law enforcement has yielded significant results. Nonetheless, it also encounters various challenges, including data privacy infringement, cybersecurity attacks, the legitimacy of digital evidence collection, and data sharing barriers. Therefore, at the institutional level, standardizing digital maritime law enforcement procedures and establishing both horizontal and vertical coordination mechanisms are imperative. At the technical level, introducing privacy protection technologies and increasing investment in network security technologies are necessary. At the conceptual level, China should adhere to data ethics principles and strengthen awareness of open data sharing. The future of the oceans is digital, and China should advance the modernization of national maritime governance through digital maritime law enforcement.

The Eurasian Space in Chinese Official and Academic Discourses

The «Belе and Road Initiative» (BRI), proposed by China, marked a new phase in its external openness and growing desire to influence regional and global processes. However, BRI should not be viewed solely as a Chinese blueprint for restructuring Eurasia. The broad interpretative and geographical scope set by Chinese authorities allows flexibility in adapting the initiative to specific regions and countries, which is strategic for modifying or withdrawing commitments as needed. This paper examines why BRI has not become the foundation for a Chinese concept of Eurasia despite its significant impact on regional geopolitics.Our analysis begins with a critical examination of President Xi Jinping's speech at Nazarbayev University in 2013, identifying the nuanced usage of «Eurasia» that primarily refers to the post-Soviet space rather than the entire Eurasian continent. We delve into the subsequent official documents, noting the delay and ambiguity in defining the geographical and conceptual boundaries of BRI. The 2015 document, "Vision and Actions on Jointly Building Silk Road Economic Belt and 21st-Century Maritime Silk Road," illustrates the initiative's extensive and vague geographical scope, indicating that China did not initially aim for a broad Eurasian strategy.By employing Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA), we uncover how China's official rhetoric strategically frames BRI. The analysis reveals that Chinese discourse emphasizes bilateral rather than multilateral engagements within Eurasia, reflecting a «point-to-point» rather than a networked approach. This strategic ambiguity allows China to navigate its relationships with key regional players, notably Russia and the Central Asian states, without committing to a comprehensive Eurasian integration framework.The findings highlight the cautious and adaptive nature of China's engagement with Eurasia. The shift from a regional to a global scope in BRI discourse underscores China's pragmatic approach in balancing its regional ambitions with global aspirations.

Building a Community of Shared Future through ESG Financial pathway: Fostering Green Development and Global Cooperation

The world is facing unprecedented challenges. Extreme weather events such as high temperatures,severe cold,and heavy rains are becoming more frequent and violent. The resulting natural disasters,such as droughts, floods, and wildfires, seriously threaten the ecosystem and human safety. Melting glaciers, rising sea levels, resurgence of ancient viruses, and disruption of the natural food chain will plunge the entire earth into an unprecedented crisis. The Chinese government proposed cooperation initiative to build the"the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st-Century Maritime Silk Road" respectively to jointly create a destiny for mankind that benefits political mutual trust, economic integration, cultural inclusion, community. In the context of "the Belt and Road initiative", building a community with a shared future for mankind through green development and cooperation with the help of ESG (environment, society and governance) is currently an important issue for the sustainable development of the entire region. The initiative aims to promote economic cooperation and exchanges among countries along the route and promote common prosperity and development. With the help of ESG concepts and practices, a framework for green development cooperation can be built for countries along the "the Belt and Road initiative" to achieve sustainable development goals. The research team recently conducted extensive research in Europe and gained two outstanding insights. First, although Europe does not have a complete industrial system,it has its own characteristics in the implementation and promotion of ESG models.The most important reason is that they attach great importance to the ESG concept , it has advantages in terms of corporate strategy, technology and financial management scale. Second, as a developing country, China has the most stable policy system and the most complete industrial system. These two points of view have important implications for thinking about building a community with a shared future for mankind through green development and cooperation through ESG paths in the context of "the Belt and Road initiative".

How the Belt and Road Initiative Promotes Integration and Upgrading of Emerging Market Supply Chains

This study delves into the trans-formative role of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) in fostering the integration and upgrading of supply chains within emerging markets. Conceived as a modern revival and expansion of the ancient Silk Road, the BRI has rapidly evolved into a comprehensive framework for global economic collaboration, with a focus on extensive infrastructure development across continents. This paper offers an in-depth exploration of the BRI's structure, including the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road, underscoring the initiative's key components and its strategic focus on enhancing connectivity. Through the lens of case studies, this research illustrates the BRI's substantial contributions to strengthening trade links, economic cooperation, and the resilience of supply chains. Moreover, it assesses how the BRI promotes improved connectivity, lowers trade barriers, and enhances the skills and abilities of professionals in the logistics industry, thereby boosting trade and investment. Additionally, the study explores future directions, spotlighting emerging trends, challenges, and strategic imperatives for the BRI. In conclusion, it offers insights into how to navigate the future of global economic integration and supply chain diversification through the BRI.

Charting sustainable logistics on the 21st-Century Maritime Silk Road: a DEA-based approach enhanced by risk considerations through prospect theory

This study investigates the sustainable logistics potential of countries along the Maritime Silk Road (MSR), an essential element of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), against a backdrop of increasing global emphasis on sustainability and efficient trade practices. Addressing the gap in existing literature, it explores how strategic positioning influences countries’ logistics capabilities, integrating risk considerations and behavioral decision-making aspects into the assessment. Through a specialized Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) model that incorporates Prospect Theory, this research provides a nuanced evaluation of economic performance, energy efficiency, infrastructure robustness, governance quality, and innovation capabilities. The analysis reveals significant findings, such as Vietnam’s outstanding economic efficiency, Indonesia’s notable achievements in sustainability and governance, and Malaysia’s balanced efficiency, which collectively enhance the MSR’s logistics framework. Additionally, India, Greece, Djibouti, and Kenya emerge as vital partners due to their diverse strengths. The introduction of a risk-aware DEA model, enriched with behavioral factors, marks a significant advancement in logistics assessment methodologies, offering a more comprehensive understanding of sustainable logistics practices along the MSR. The implications of this study are profound, providing valuable insights for policymakers, investors, and business leaders. It guides strategic decision-making, promoting sustainability in MSR trade activities while aligning with global eco-conscious practices and economic growth within the context of environmental stewardship and sustainable development. However, the research acknowledges limitations related to the indirect measurement of decision-makers’ psychological behavioral coefficients and the focus on efficiency metrics without extensive exploration of cultural, political, or legal factors. This work sets a new precedent in sustainable logistics research, encouraging future studies to incorporate direct behavioral data and qualitative factors for a more enriched evaluation. Its innovative approach not only contributes to the academic discourse on sustainable logistics but also offers practical tools for enhancing the MSR’s trade efficiency and sustainability.

Evolution of China’s Coastal Economy since the Belt and Road Initiative Based on Nighttime Light Imagery

The joint construction of the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road proposed by China has brought major development opportunities for the development of countries and regions along the routes. Traditional GDP statistics based on administrative units cannot describe the spatial differences of GDP within administrative units, which has certain limitations in exploring regional economic development analysis and supporting economic development decision making. Based on NPP-VIIRS luminous remote sensing data, land use data, and statistical yearbook data, this paper analyzes the spatial–temporal evolution pattern of economic level in China’s coastal economic belt from 2012 to 2021 using the Moran index and standard deviation ellipse. An unbalanced distribution of economic development are found along China coastal area and the economic gravity center moved southwest since the Belt and Road Initiative. The results show thatthe Yangtze River Delta was extremely active , and the economic growth of the south was better than that of the north. The grided GDP map presents more details of regional economic development, and provides an opportunity for further mechanisms exploration of the development process.

The characteristics and influencing factors of the embodied energy flow network in fishery trade among countries along the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road

The characteristics and influencing factors of the embodied energy flow network in fishery trade among countries along the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road

A Qualitative Cost-Benefit Analysis of the Maritime Silk Road in Europe: Who Benefits from the Initiative and Who Does Not

Abstract: China has traditionally been regarded as a continental power. However, the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road (MSR), launched in 2013, shapes China's intention to become a global maritime power. The initiative is the most significant contribution to increasing global maritime connectivity in recent decades. The volume and impact of Chinese investments in Europe's seaports are remarkable. This article proposes a fundamental framework to assess who benefits from the initiative. Since quantitative cost-benefit analyses (CBA) hardly apply to multifaceted and partially unquantifiable phenomena, we suggest assessing the MSR by means of a comprehensive qualitative CBA. We opted for a qualitative CBA due to ontological and epistemological reasons: on the one hand, the complex and multilayered nature of the problem is difficult to monetize, and, on the other hand, our argument is not final, as it attempts to assess a given policy before its implementation is sufficiently mature. In this vein, we apply the problem-solving methodology 'analytic hierarchy process'. While the media have disproportionately stressed the negative effects of the MSR, we conclude under this framework that (i) for China, MSR benefits largely outweigh associated costs; (ii) for participating countries, MSR benefits outweigh the associated costs only after cost-mitigating measures are incorporated; and (iii) for non-participating countries, MSR costs outweigh associated benefits.

Research on the connectivity of port infrastructure along the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road

The connectivity construction of the Maritime Silk Road in the 21st century has created more opportunities for trade and further promoted maritime trade among countries along the route. As an important hub of the maritime connectivity network, the construction of port infrastructure connectivity is of great significance. Taking the port infrastructure of 30 countries along the 21st-century Maritime Silk Road as an example, this paper analyzes the current state of port connectivity construction in China. It identifies that the port infrastructure connectivity between China and Southeast Asia is the most developed and establishes an indicator system for evaluating the potential for port infrastructure connectivity. Based on the principal component analysis (PCA), it is found that Germany, Singapore, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, and other countries have relatively high port infrastructure connectivity potential. Finally, suggestions are put forward: China should strengthen the connectivity construction of port infrastructure with Europe and prioritize policy exchanges with Germany to align port development strategies and enhance bilateral maritime trade by establishing complementary trade chains.

Does the BRI contribute to poverty reduction in countries along the Belt and Road? A DID-based empirical test

Most countries along the Belt and Road are developing countries that face pronounced challenges due to poverty. The Chinese government has committed to implementing the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) to establish a ‘Road to Poverty Reduction’. This study explores the impact of the BRI on poverty reduction in participating countries as well as the mechanisms underlying this impact. This research is of great significance to the continuing implementation of the BRI and global poverty governance. Based on a panel dataset extending from 2005 to 2019 and encompassing 151 countries, this article uses the difference-in-differences method to examine the Initiative’s impact and conducts heterogeneity analysis to explore the mechanism underlying this impact in further detail. This approach results in four findings. First, joining the BRI can significantly reduce poverty rates in these countries. Second, the policy effect exhibits a time lag. In the long term, the poverty reduction effect becomes more significant. Third, the BRI can significantly reduce poverty in countries neighbouring China and in lower-middle-income countries. The Land Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st-Century Maritime Silk Road distinctly reduce poverty. Fourth, the BRI contributes to poverty reduction in BRI countries by facilitating trade, enhancing financial and credit systems, increasing China’s greenfield investment, and establishing digital infrastructure. Additionally, the BRI promotes poverty reduction through increased bilateral visits and technical cooperation, whereas knowledge sharing remains an area in need of further development. Through theoretical analysis and empirical tests, this article evaluates the policy effect of the BRI on poverty alleviation, tests the underlying mechanism, and responds to some concerns expressed by the international community. The findings of this article provide a feasible direction for improving the ability of the BRI to reduce poverty more effectively in the future and thus achieve the United Nations’ sustainable development goals (SDGs).

Noaiwia

This article focuses on the linguistic landscape of Noaiwia, one of thirteen villages located on Nguna Island off the north coast of Efate, Vanuatu. It contributes to the understanding of the linguistic landscape of a small village in a previously undocumented rural setting in the understudied islands of Southeast Asia and Oceania. Using a corpus of photographs and detailed qualitative interpretation of the visual and verbal signs found around the village, the analysis first highlights the near absence of the island’s indigenous language in the public space. An analysis of the signage found at the school further suggests the exclusive presence and high status of the English language. A contrastive analysis also shows a different linguistic landscape from the one found in Vanuatu’s capital city Port Vila. Finally, the article looks at the presence of the Chinese language on a water tank, a reflection of China’s 21st Century Maritime Silk Road programme in the Pacific. The results are discussed in relation to the status of indigenous languages and Bislama, the islands’ lingua franca, language policy in education in Vanuatu, and language ideology in a globalised world.

Commonalities and Differences of the Language Policy in Russian-speaking Countries along “The Belt and Road”

"Bel and Road Initiative"， which is also known as the “Silk Road Economic Belt” or the "21st Century Maritime Silk Road", is a new model of national cooperation advocated by China and is considered to be the economic cooperation zone with the widest coverage in the world today. The Russian-speaking countries along "Belt and Road Initiative" refer to the countries where "Russian" is recognized by the constitution as the national language, official language, interracial common language, or exists in the form of mother tongue, minority language, etc., thus forming a "language – state – group" with Russian as its link. Due to limited length, this paper mainly studies the "three East Slavic Countries", namely Russia, Ukraine, Belarus and the "Five Central Asian Countries", namely Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan. Russian-speaking countries along the "Belt and Road" have complicated historical, ethnic, political, religious, linguistic and other links. This also leads to the complexity of language governance in various countries under the background of global governance and shows commonalities and differences in the basic direction of language policy in various countries. The commonalities are mainly manifested in the hierarchy of forms of language policy, the stages in history, the politics of function and the multiplicity of objectives. The differences are mainly manifested in the language abilities of countries, the degree of national language policy and the guidance of dealing with the relationship with Russian on the premise of language policy. The commonalities and differences can help us fully understand the function of language in boosting economic exchanges, the positive and negative energy contained in language, the relationship between language and national security, and the relationship between language and cultural discourse power in the context of the "Belt and Road Initiative".The extraction of the commonalities and differences of language policy in Russian-speaking countries along the "Belt and Road "is conducive to promoting the transformation of language research from a Chinese perspective to a global perspective. The cooperation in the era of globalization is always multiple and non-unitary. In the context of the "Belt and Road Initiative", under the cooperation framework of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization and in the process of the "Belt and Road Alliance", that is, the alliance of "Belt and Road" and the "Eurasian Economic Union", these Russian-speaking countries are not only important nodes along the "Belt and Road", but also important partners of China’s cooperation and exchanges in different frameworks of exchanges.The current prominent problems of Russian-speaking countries along the "Belt and Road" include the status of the national language and interracial common languages within the country, as well as the issues of language independence, cultural independence, and language sovereignty between countries. All these issues have essentially surpassed the basic function of language itself. In the vision of a community of shared future for mankind, the highest level of communication between sovereign countries is mutual communication and mutual learning based on mutual respect for culture. Only when we have a clear understanding of the rule of law in the countries along “the Belt and Road”, including their language policies, language plannings and language strategies, can the implementation of the "Belt and Road Initiative" be better and comprehensively supported.

Geopolitical luck or crisis?:Communicating China’s Built and Road Initiative amidst South China Sea Dispute

As the maritime dispute in the South China Sea (West Philippine Sea) continues, this paper speculates on the possible outcomes of former Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte's sustained commitment to have stronger trade ties with China by participating in the Built and Road Initiative (BRI). During Chinese President Xi Jinping's official visit to the United States last year, 29 bilateral agreements were inked. When it comes to military, security, law enforcement, maritime cooperation, transnational crime, and other issues, China, Asia's biggest economy, has both agreements and worries. Even if mistrust in Asia's economic superpower is growing due to debt trap concerns and a maritime dispute, there is still hope for achieving the American goal of financial security because of the government's cooperative influence on China's power aspirations. Although estimates on total investments differ, Chatzky and McBride (2019) cite Morgan Stanley as saying China's entire costs throughout the duration of the Built and Road Initiative (BRI) might reach $1.2-1.3 trillion by 2027.
 In conclusion, the Philippines and other Southeast Asian nations need to have room for conversation and cooperation in order to construct shared progress. According to Gou and Yang (2017), it is clear that all Asian nations want to maintain cordial ties with China. China's US$40 billion funding schemes, via the 21st century Maritime Silk Road, may accelerate regional infrastructure development and integration, and there are strong cultural and people-to-people links. The economy and increasing middle class provide significant prospects.

Spatio-Temporal Changes in Ecosystem Quality across the Belt and Road Region.

The Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road Initiative (BRI) proposed in 2013 by China has greatly accelerated the social and economic development of the countries along the Belt and Road (B&R) region. However, the international community has questioned its impact on the ecological environment and a comprehensive assessment of ecosystem quality changes is lacking. Therefore, this study proposes an objective and automatic method to assess ecosystem quality and analyzes the spatiotemporal changes in the B&R region. First, an ecosystem quality index (EQI) is established by integrating the vegetation status derived from three remote sensing ecological parameters including the leaf area index, fractional vegetation cover and gross primary productivity. Then, the EQI values are automatically categorized into five ecosystem quality levels including excellent, good, moderate, low and poor to illustrate their spatiotemporal changes from the years 2016 to 2020. The results indicate that the spatial distributions of the EQIs across the B&R region exhibited similar patterns in the years 2016 and 2020. The regions with excellent levels accounted for the lowest proportion of less than 12%, while regions with moderate, low and poor levels accounted for more than 68% of the study area. Moreover, based on the EQI pattern analysis between the years 2016 and 2020, the regions with no significant EQI change accounted for up to 99.33% and approximately 0.45% experienced a significantly decreased EQI. Therefore, this study indicates that the ecosystem quality of the B&R region was relatively poor and experienced no significant change in the five years after the implementation of the "Vision and Action to Promote the Joint Construction of the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road". This study can provide useful information for decision support on the future ecological environment management and sustainable development of the B&R region.

China’s Belt and Road Initiative: An Analysis

Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), a signature foreign policy initiative by China’s President Xi Jinping, is the largest global infrastructure undertaking, surpassing the Marshall Plan. Chinese banks and companies have invested billions in funding and building infrastructure in numerous countries. Two significant initiatives are related to and referred to the BRI. One is the Silk Road Economic Belt (SREB) and the 21st-century Maritime Silk Road (MSR). However, with the commencement, the initiative has attracted enormous global attention. Background information about SREB and the MSR and its implementation have been discussed in this article. This article highlights China’s strategic considerations for the BRI and its significance to the country. This article additionally concentrates on the progress of BRI and how the West and China’s neighbours view it and offers insight into the recently unfolding criticisms. Keywords Belt and Road Initiative, Silk Road Economic Belt, Maritime Silk Road, Xi Jinping

Leverage Bayesian Network and Fault Tree Method on Risk Assessment of LNG Maritime Transport Shipping Routes: Application to the China–Australia Route

The China–Australia Route, which serves as the southern economic corridor of the ‘21st Century Maritime Silk Road’, bears great importance in safeguarding maritime transportation operations. This route plays a crucial role in ensuring the security and efficiency of such activities. To pre-assess the risks of this route, this paper presents a two-stage analytical framework that combines fault tree analysis and Bayesian network for evaluating the occurrence likelihood of risk of transporting liquefied natural gas (LNG) on the China–Australia Route. In the first stage, our study involved the identification of 22 risk influencing factors drawn from a comprehensive review of pertinent literature and an in-depth analysis of accident reports. These identified factors were then utilized as basic events to construct a fault tree. Later, we applied an expert comprehensive evaluation method and fuzzy set theory, and by introducing voting mechanism into expert opinions, the prior probability of basic events was calculated. In the second stage, a fault tree was transformed into a Bayesian network, which overcame the deficiency that the structure and conditional probability table of the Bayesian network find difficult to determine. Consequently, the employment of the Bayesian network architecture was applied to forecast the likelihood of LNG maritime transport along the China–Australia shipping pathway. The probability importance and critical importance of each basic event was calculated through an importance analysis. The development of a risk matrix was achieved by considering the two primary dimensions of frequency and impact, which were subsequently utilized to categorize all relevant risk factors into high, moderate, or low risk categories. This allowed for effective risk mitigation and prevention strategies to be implemented. Finally, assuming that the final risk occurs, we calculated the posterior probability of the basic event to diagnose the risk. The research findings indicate that the primary reasons for the risk of transporting LNG on the China–Australia Route are the impact of natural forces and epidemics, piracy and terrorist attacks, and the risk of LNG explosions. In the final section, we provide suggestions and risk control measures based on the research results to reduce the occurrence of risks.

Investment obstacles of main countries situated along the 21st century Maritime Silk Road – a perspective of risk assessment

ABSTRACT The 21st Century Maritime Silk Road (MSR) is a development strategy initiated by the Chinese Government to respond to the changing global landscape. As this initiative progresses, growing number of enterprises are exploring investment opportunities overseas. Consequently, it has become increasingly important to address the investment obstacles faced by these enterprises. This paper assesses the investment environment of 22 countries along the MSR from three perspectives: the macroscopic perspective of country risk, the intermediate perspective of market environment risk, and the microscopic perspective of enterprise operational risk. Such a risk assessment is crucial in facilitating Chinese enterprises that seek to expand overseas. The research findings indicate that the investment risks in countries along the MSR are substantia, and enterprises should be cautious when investing. Drawing on the analysis, this paper presents macroscopic and microscopic control measures that both governments and enterprises can implement to alleviate investment barriers.

Correlation Analysis of Stock Markets in the Belt and Road Regions

As a regional cooperation framework, the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) aims to spur economic development by investing in infrastructure and improving connectivity between the countries in Asia, Europe, and Africa located along the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road. Many studies have documented that BRI-related investment projects reduce trade costs, increase trade and investment flows, bring benefits to trading parties, and improve connectivity between countries along the Belt and Road. Financial integration is a critical aspect of intangible connectivity that is fundamental to and benefits from increased trade and investment flows between countries. This study examines the pairwise correlations between 39 stock markets in the Belt and Road regions from 2008 to 2018, focusing on the correlations between China and the other markets. We find that the correlation between two markets in the same region is greater than those in different regions. China has a higher correlation with markets in Southeast Asia and North and Central Asia than in other regions. The correlations fluctuate over time, but their relative rankings among market pairs remain stable. In the first half of 2015, there was an unusually low correlation between China and all other markets, most likely due to China’s stock market bubble. Our systematic examination of stock market correlations in the Belt and Road regions sheds new light on the temporal and cross-sectional dynamics in these understudied financial markets. The findings suggest significant potential for financial integration in the Belt and Road regions.