Opinion: China’s long game, part II — toward global hegemony

The Silk Road. It was the trade route that ran from China to the West during the days of the Roman Empire. In 2013, President Xi Jinping announced the opening of a new trade corridor between China and the world, notably Central and Southern Asia, the Middle East, Eastern Europe, and Africa. Known as the Belt and Road Action Plan since 2015, the $900 billion project is intended to introduce China’s “new era of globalization.”

According to Anna Bruce-Lockart, writing for the World Economic Forum, “There’s no doubt that China is growing into a geopolitical heavyweight, stepping into the breach left by the United States on matters of free trade and climate change.” An editorial in Xinhua, a Chinese state-run media agency publication, notes, “As some Western countries move backwards by erecting ‘walls,’ China is contriving to build bridges, both literal and metaphorical.” The World Economic Forum points out that “62 countries could see investments of up to $500 billion over the next five years, according to Credit Suisse, with most of that channeled to India, Russia, Indonesia, Egypt, the Philippines, and Pakistan.”

Tools for global hegemony

Writing for The Diplomat, Sophia Nina Burna-Asefi states, “In the middle of the Pamir mountains, near the remote Tajik-Afghan border area of Badakhshan, I find myself staring at a large red banner with Chinese text that says, ‘China Aid: Shared Humanity.’ Beside it, another reads, ‘Belt and Road, win-win with you!’” It is a harbinger of China’s gradual assumption of world geopolitical and economic domination.