Maritime Silk Road Initiative Research Articles

Maritime China, sea temples, and contested heritage in the Indian Ocean

ABSTRACT This article examines the complex interplay between heritage, cultural identity, and state power, as exemplified by the contested heritage discourse surrounding a sea temple and the Chinese cult of Guandi in Mauritius. The main temple of Guandi in Mauritius abound in aquatic and oceanic manifestations, which stand in sharp contrast with state-endorsed, land-based Guandi temples in China. This contrast suggests a distinct cultural identity of the Chinese society in the Southwest Indian Ocean region. As reflected in the narratives of both Mauritian and Chinese authorities, the temple and cult also figure prominently in the re-imagining of Mauritian nation building and China’s Maritime Silk Road Initiative. Drawing on critical heritage studies and the revitalised academic focus on sea temples that revisits the overlooked maritime connectivity, this article demonstrates how a historically-forged transoceanic identity in the name of Guandi is being contested by the new processes of heritagisation initiated by the Mauritian and Chinese states and how appreciation of the maritime heritage of Chinese diaspora in the Indian Ocean can re-emerge when the interpretation of the cult shifts from its role as one component of Mauritian and Chinese national heritage to its unorthodox oceanic reinvention.

Economic impacts of the maritime silk road initiative on the Suez Canal

ABSTRACT The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) is a key component of China’s future international trading network. Through the Suez Canal (SC), the Maritime Silk Road Initiative (MSRI) links China to other parts of Asia, Africa, and Europe, making it a major route for global seaborne trade. This is because of the SC’s unique location on the MSRI. This study uses annual data from 1990 to 2022 to examine this dynamic relationship. We use the Vector Auto-Regressive (VAR) model and Impulse Response Function to account for the interaction effect of the variables. Model results show that China’s seaborne trade will increase SC trade by 23%, and China’s BRI investment projects are anticipated to have a significant impact on SC cargo trade in the medium and long run. Developing more value-added services in adjacent regions and attracting large Chinese investments might make the SC a worldwide logistics and a green energy hub.

Evaluation of the Competitiveness of China’s Coastal Container Ports In the Context of the Maritime Silk Road

A scientific and reasonable assessment of port competitiveness will facilitate a comprehensive understanding of the current development of Chinese container ports along the Maritime Silk Road. Considering the network attributes of ports and the repetitive information among indicators, this paper proposes a novel port competitiveness evaluation and grading model based on entropy-improved catastrophe progression method. On the basis of a directed and weighted shipping network, the “dominance” indicator is innovatively introduced. The evaluation system including land-oriented competitiveness, sea-oriented competitiveness, hinterland support capacity and production and operation capacity provides a comprehensive assessment of port competitiveness. It is found that: land-oriented and sea-oriented competitiveness have the greatest influence on port competitiveness. A pattern of “One core, two wings, and four ports’ coordination” has been developed among coastal ports in China. The competition among ports in the Bohai Rim region is fierce, and production and operation ability of ports in the southeast coast needs to be strengthened. Fuzhou port and Rizhao port have high hinterland support and high development potential. The results of this paper can provide decision support for the development and upgrading of China’s coastal ports under the Maritime Silk Road initiative.

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.

Conditional Support: Chinese Development Aid in the Caribbean

Abstract: In recent decades, China has emerged as a major economic power operating within the Caribbean, making the analysis of its foreign policy strategy in the region of paramount importance. This essay will seek to identify the ideology undergirding China’s foreign policy within the Caribbean, using these insights to analyze the effects of Beijing’s increased engagement within the region. This essay will argue that Beijing has sought to create close ties with a number of Caribbean states by launching a slew of generous development assistance projects, attaching conditionalities to these projects to effectively incorporate partner states into their export and ideological network. China views the Caribbean as a valuable political partner, as its proximity to the United States makes its potential alliance with China a prominent counterfactual to Western hegemony. To achieve this argument, I will highlight how China’s Maritime Silk Road Initiative (MSRI) has influenced China’s grand strategy within the Caribbean, as it seeks to incorporate the region into a broader economic network to challenge Western economic systems. I will then highlight how economic considerations influence China’s bilateral relations with a number of resource-rich Caribbean states, investigating the diplomatic approach China has used to increase its access to natural resources in the region. Lastly, this essay will investigate how China’s development assistance based strategy has impacted the Caribbean itself. This will cover both its negative and positive effects on domestic industries, while also exploring how China’s ambitious economic expansion has stoked social discontent in the region.

Ship route planning in the pirate area via hybrid probabilistic roadmap algorithm within the context of the Maritime Silk Road

The frequent occurrence of pirate accidents along the Maritime Silk Road has seriously affected the safety of ships. To guarantee navigation safety in pirate activity area, we present a hybrid probabilistic roadmap (HPRM) algorithm for ship route planning. Our HPRM algorithm consists of the improved learning phase and the enhanced exploration phase. Firstly, to improve the utilization of sampling points, the sampling point reset (SPR) function is introduced to generate new sampling points to replace the sampling points in the dangerous area. Secondly, to reduce the number of ship turns, the Douglas–Peucker (D–P) algorithm is utilized to extract the key waypoints (KWP) for generating the optimized route. Finally, the Euler spiral fitting is applied to smooth the route. Numerical cases verified that the ship route planned via the HPRM algorithm is shorter and smoother. This study is conducive to guarantee the safety of ship navigation in the pirate area and enhance ship navigation efficiency, which is of great practical significance for the advancement of the Maritime Silk Road Initiative.

China-Sri Lanka Economic Relations: Opportunities and Challenges for Sri Lanka

This study intends to analyse the growing economic relations between China and Sri Lanka focusing on opportunities and challenges for Sri Lanka. The study used qualitative and quantitative research methods for the subsequent analysis. Descriptive statistical techniques were used to analyse the quantitative data, and critical discourse analysis was used to analyse the qualitative data. The data was presented using texts, tables and figures. The study found that Sri Lanka has gained many opportunities due to close economic relations with China. Sri Lanka is an important location in China’s Maritime Silk Road initiative and China’s string of pearls concept provided lots of economic benefits for Sri Lanka. China become a significant export market, source of foreign direct investment, source of low-cost imports for Sri Lanka, vast infrastructure development of the country and source of the tourism industry in Sri Lanka. China also became a key source of military and diplomatic support for Sri Lanka when needed. Sri Lanka’s economic relations with China present both opportunities as well as challenges. China’s involvement in Sri Lanka has become a possible challenge for Sri Lanka to tackle with big brother India. As well, negative trade balance, huge debts and low investment returns also can be considered as the major challenging areas in which Sri Lanka faced economic relations with China.

Toward Better Maritime Cooperation—A Proposal from the Chinese Perspective

The development of sea power theory has undergone a transformation in the contemporary context. The 21st Century Maritime Silk Road Initiative, as proposed by China, is promoted as an effort to establish a cooperative development model. This approach would also seem to be consistent with the essence of modern sea power and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road Initiative. This article argues that in order to establish a viable legal cooperative framework, “hard power” cooperation and “soft power” cooperation models should be introduced, on the basis of current international treaties and customary law, and with reference to international experience.

The Maritime Silk Road Initiative and Its Implications for China’s Regional Policy

The Maritime Silk Road Initiative and Its Implications for China’s Regional Policy

The Road and Belt Initiative in Malaysia: Challenges and Recommendations

ABSTRACT In recent years, China has expanded its relations with other nations through the Belt and Road Initiative. This initiative was formally introduced after it was launched in 2013 by President Xi Jinping. It comprises two components, namely, the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road Initiative, both of which aim to stimulate the acceleration of economic growth in Asia, Africa and Europe. This research attempts to provide a detailed review of the execution of this initiative through empirical studies based on qualitative analysis, which are closely related to BRI implementation in Malaysia. The focus of this research, however, is not limited to studying the viewpoints of leaders and scholars on the initiative; rather, it will also attempt to discuss theBRI’s progress and the obstacles encountered to date from the political aspects of both China and Malaysia. By identifying the potential challenges to come, this research will prove to be significant, as it proposes some comprehensive measures to address and forestall any setbacks that may arise, which may affect the implementation of the BRI between the two nations. Keywords: Belt and Road Initiative (BRI); Malaysia–China relations; Silk Road; China–ASEAN relations; Maritime Silk Road A

Artificial intelligence and big data in the Maritime Silk Road Initiative: The road towards Sea Power 2.0

China’s Belt and Road Initiative continues to attract considerable attention from scholars and observers in diverse fields. However, students of the Belt and Road Initiative (‘the Initiative’) have focused extensively on the land and sea dimensions of this grand project while only tentatively touching on its other dimensions. This article draws attention to the digital and maritime dimensions of the Initiative, which are respectively known as the Digital Silk Road Initiative and the Maritime Silk Road Initiative. Specifically, the article focuses on how artificial intelligence and big data, as promoted under the Digital Silk Road Initiative, intersect with the Maritime Silk Road Initiative to produce what the author refers to as Sea power 2.0. To contextualise this intersection, the article draws on patent data to show how artificial intelligence and big data are adopted in supply chains. The results from the patent analysis show that artificial intelligence and big data will play a crucial role in future supply chains, and hence, the Maritime Silk Road Initiative. Although the article focuses mostly on the commercial side of Sea power 2.0, it concludes by pointing out how artificial intelligence and big data could serve military objectives. Keywords: artificial intelligence, big data, supply chain, sea power, Maritime Silk Road Initiative

ПОЛИТИКА РАЗВИТИЯ МОРСКОГО ШЕЛКОВОГО ПУТИ: ВОЗМОЖНОСТИ ДЛЯ РОССИИ (НА ПРИМЕРЕ СЕВЕРНОГО МОРСКОГО ПУТИ)

The development of the Maritime Silk Road (MSR) of the 21st century is important in order to use the positive aspects of that policy in Russia for the development of the Northern Sea Route (NSR). The global nature of the Chinese Maritime Silk Road initiative and, in general, “One Belt, One Road” is emphasized by the growing participation of interested countries in their development. The positive aspects of the MSR development policy are important for the development of the NSR. As part of the study in the specifics of the MSR, development policy a number of works by international and Russian authors, as well as official data on the development and implementation of the Chinese transport policy, were analyzed. At the same time, tools of discursive and political analysis, methods of abstracting, data collection, systematization of research positions, strategies, official data, as well as the use of an institutional approach were used. Analyzing the features of the China transport policy showed some possibilities of their application in Russia for the development of the NSR. The paper summarizes recommendations on the development of the transport policy of the Russian Federation in relation to the NSR: the need to develop a set of measures to enhance international interest; the importance of conducting a comparative analysis with the Chinese policy of promoting the MSR.

Agency and Autonomy in the Maritime Silk Road Initiative: An Examination of Djibouti’s Doraleh Container Terminal Disputes

Abstract Touted as the second coming of the Hambantota debt-for-equity swap deal, the ongoing legal dispute pitting Dubai Ports (DP) World (United Arab Emirates) and China Merchants Port (CMP) over the Doraleh Container Terminal (DCT) (Djibouti) in front of the Hong Kong High Courts has been hastily interpreted as yet another act of Chinese economic statecraft. Yet, when looking more closely at the specifics of this dispute, it would appear that the evidence does not lend itself favourably to those who advocate the power of Chinese political leverage in return for “debt traps”. This article debunks the myth of Chinese grand strategy as the driving force behind the legal dispute over the DCT, by instead placing the combination of Djiboutian elite agency and CMP’s entrepreneurial autonomy as the primary causal variables. It does so by predominantly drawing on unexplored publicly available data obtained from the various legal disputes pertaining to the DCT.

AN ONE BELT, ONE ROAD AND THE WORLD: HOW CHINA IS MASTERING THE WORLD'S MIGRATION PATTERNS

This study looks at China's "One Belt, One Road" initiative, which is grouped into two parts: the Maritime Silk Road Initiative and the Silk Road Economic Belt, both of which were revealed in 2013. Through the establishment of interconnected infrastructure projects such as ports, roads, railways, and pipelines, each component has the ability to reshape the global geopolitical landscape.The paper is divided into four sections to help the reader have a better grasp of the OBOR project and its impacts. This study describes trends and patterns of recent OBOR projects in Belt and Road Countries, analyzes the geopolitical implications of the OBOR, and investigates the integration of new migration patterns based on existing data and literature on current Chinese development. Using a geopolitical approach that identifies territorial and political power, This study examined prospective migration and integration patterns that may emerge as the OBOR initiative advancements. As a result, this paper concludes that the OBOR initiative is not only an international cooperation project, but something that also turns China's geopolitics power at various levels, has the potential to be momentous, and will simultaneously create opportunities for global partnership while also reshaping the existing migration pattern and a new geopolitics perspective.

The Aesthetic Power of Ships in International Political Communication: Why Ships Matter in China’s Communication of the Maritime Silk Road Initiative

ABSTRACT This article argues that closer attention to the objects visualised in China's international political communication of the Maritime Silk Road Initiative (MSRI) will add new knowledge of China's global media strategies. Particularly, it contends that the creation of specific visual depictions of ships carries great significance in China's strategic narratives of the MSRI. The argument suggests that these visuals help Beijing to legitimise their maritime transport and foreign investments in ports as part of a liberal agenda and to forge its maritime identity as a peaceful trading country with historical roots. This approach is based on the premise that ships in international political communication have aesthetic power. Greater understanding of the social and compositional modalities of ships in China's communication provides valuable insights into how China tries to legitimise the MSRI, but also the complexity for China to avoid aesthetic vulnerability considering the existence of competing (visual) narratives.

Middle Kingdom Enters Middle East

Through the lens of world-systems analysis, this research argues that Beijing is creating a miniature world-system overlapping with the United States-led world-system via its Belt Road Initiative (BRI). Although China has not yet become a core power, its BRI seems to possess the qualities of a new world-system in the making, within which China enjoys hegemonic traits such as economic and military might and capable alternative institutions. This BRI-bound world-system consists of BRI participant states whose areas and processes are being molded to better fit China as core and hegemon; a phenomenon known as peripheralization. In the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), the Maritime Silk Road Initiative (MSRI) appears to be peripheralizing Arab states into this BRI-bound world-system through China’s growing economic dominance of the region and promotion of new modi operandi. After arguing the emergence of the BRI-bound world-system and establishing China’s peripheralization capacity, Lebanon is taken as a case study of a peripheral MENA state to illustrate how predominant Western hegemony can hamper China’s peripheralization apparatus, forcing it to choose areas/processes of the highest immediate relevance for focused peripheralization efforts.

Analyzing the spatial-temporal characteristics of the marine economic efficiency of countries along the Maritime Silk Road and the influencing factors

The 21st-century Maritime Silk Road (MSR) initiative provides a new direction for the high-quality development of China and the marine economy along the route. Studying the marine economy of the countries along the MSR will contribute to its sustainable development. This study used a slacks-based model (SBM) and considered undesired output to estimate the marine economic efficiency of 20 countries along the MSR from 2007 to 2017. The Malmquist-Luenberger productivity index model was applied to analyze the dynamic changes in and decomposition efficiency of marine economic efficiency. A dynamic panel model was employed to analyze the factors affecting efficiency. The results revealed that the overall marine economic efficiency of countries along the MSR trended upward from 2007 to 2017. The overall efficiency of the ocean at both ends of the MSR was greater than that in the middle and there was a clear difference in the marine economic efficiency of developed and developing countries. Moreover, as per the Malmquist-Luenberger productivity index model, the overall index demonstrated a fluctuating trend with the growth in the economic efficiency of countries along the MSR, which depend more on improvements in scale efficiency, and not on pure technical efficiency. Also, as shown by a dynamic panel model, degrees of resource dependence and levels of opening up have positive impacts on marine economic efficiency, while levels of economic development and the industrial structures have a negative impact. Therefore, countries along the MSR should actively adjust their industrial structures and attach importance to exchanges and cooperation that lead to maritime economic development.

China’s Maritime Silk Road Initiative: A quest for sea power

Much has been written about China’s deep ambitions as the country moves towards great power status. The Maritime Silk Road Initiative (MSRI) is just one example of how China is flexing its muscles, and if history is to be believed, there is a strong correlation between maritime success and national economic prosperity. The study, on which this article reports, examined China’s MSRI through the lens of sea power theory. It was argued that the New Silk Road, which will most likely be backed by a modern blue-water navy, could represent a new era of maritime supremacy. However, to see the MSRI as a pursuit of sea power requires an understanding of how maritime logistics functions as power. The seamless movement of goods across the ocean is at the heart of the MSRI. Therefore, the research question that was pursued related to how maritime logistics functions as a tool for power projection. Although sea power theory recognises merchant shipping as a core element of sea power, it was further argued that scholarly work in critical logistics and mobility studies could enhance our understanding of logistical power. The study therefore aimed to conceptualise the MSRI through the lens of sea power by highlighting maritime logistics as a strategic conduit for power projection.

Leveraging the “String of Pearls” for strategic gains? An assessment of the Maritime Silk Road Initiative’s (MSRI) economic/security nexus in the Indian Ocean Region (IOR)

ABSTRACT Since the launch of the Maritime Silk Road Initiative (MSRI), observers have witnessed the consolidation of a growing Chinese presence in ports around the Indian Ocean Region (IOR). This growing presence has caused alarm among skeptics who view the MSRI as a second coming of the String of Pearls (SoP). Indeed, China is seen as leveraging MSRI port investments in return for national strategic and geopolitical gain, such as ultimately gaining a military foothold in MSRI ports. Regardless of China’s purported intent, this paper seeks to add nuance to this debate by examining whether Beijing can actually achieve such strategic gains in the IOR via the deployment of its economic statecraft (via MSRI investments). As the paper shows, the MSRI’s current rollout – as well as the inherent resistance to the strategic dimensions of this rollout – offer little in the way of empirical support to the SoP concept.

Public-Private Partnership and Transport Infrastructure Investment Efficiency: Evidence from Countries along the 21st-Century Maritime Silk Road

Chen, B. and Guo, X., 2020. Public-private partnership and transport infrastructure investment efficiency: Evidence from countries along the 21st-century maritime silk road. In: Li, L. and Huang, X. (eds.), Sustainable Development in Coastal Regions: A Perspective of Environment, Economy, and Technology. Journal of Coastal Research, Special Issue No. 112, pp. 269-274. Coconut Creek (Florida), ISSN 0749-0208.The 21st-Century Maritime Silk Road Initiative blazes a new path for countries to cooperate for mutual benefits, and transport infrastructure has become the main battlefield for investment. With data from 2000 to 2017, the research adopts Stochastic Frontier Analysis (SFA) to evaluate transport infrastructure investment efficiency of 20 countries along the route. The results show that the average investment efficiency is 0.552 which is in the state of inefficiency, exposing the problems of efficiency loss and resource waste, but still, a yearly increasing trend is evident. The investment efficiency of the developed countries is notably higher, revealing remarkable regional discrepancy and imbalance of development. The research also reveals the Public-Private Partnership (PPP) and the Initiative's positive effect on investment efficiency by empirical examinations. PPP has helped improve investment efficiency overall but PPP in different transport sectors has heterogeneous effect that road and port PPP can significantly promote investment efficiency. The Initiative has also boosted investment efficiency along the route, especially for developing countries. All this proves the superiority and necessity of PPP and the far-reaching significance of this valuable initiative for the sustainable development of all countries.