What old Silk Road’s terminus, Quanzhou, tells us about new one, Xi Jinping’s ‘Belt and Road Initiative’
The city of Quanzhou was the eastern terminus of the historical sea trade route between China, the Middle East and Europe. Looking around, it’s not hard to see that it was shaped by multicultural openness and religious tolerance
A kebab shop in Quanzhou’s busy Zhongshan Road may seem like an unusual place to seek insights into the origins of China’s modern-day strategy to play a greater role in global affairs.
However, the coastal city in the southern Chinese province of Fujian was once described by Italian explorer Marco Polo as the largest port in the world. It is widely regarded as the eastern terminus of the ancient Maritime Silk Road and has applied to obtain Unesco World Heritage status in 2018.
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Since 2013, when Chinese President Xi Jinping outlined his vision of a 21st century Maritime Silk Road as a key element of the ambitious global trade project known as the “Belt and Road Initiative”, it has become a hot political topic.
“Our ancestors, navigating rough seas, created sea routes linking the East with the West, namely, the Maritime Silk Road,” Xi said in his keynote speech last May at the opening ceremony of the Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation in Beijing.
The Belt and Road Initiative seeks to connect more than 60 countries across three continents. Emphasising transport, infrastructure and trade, it has created a clamour among nations eager for the commerce it could bring. It has also been criticised for being a nebulous catch-all slogan that could overload countries with debt-funded infrastructure projects.