China’s maritime Silk Road plan starts a wave of bandwagon jumping at home
Cities and authorities try to link themselves with the seafaring side of Beijing’s massive trade and infrastructure scheme
China’s maritime Silk Road strategy of linking the country to Africa and Europe via the South China Sea and Indian Ocean may be raising suspicion offshore but local Chinese authorities are jumping on the bandwagon.
In Fuzhou, Fujian province, a maritime Silk Road tourism expo opened for the third consecutive year last month. In Shanghai, a research centre for the sea route – the “road” in the formal name for the trade and infrastructure plan, the “Belt and Road Initiative” – was founded last year. And in Nanjing, authorities are showcasing an exhibition of chinaware along the trade route and are eager to apply for World Heritage status for the maritime Silk Road.
In Zhuhai, at the southern end of the Pearl River Delta in Guangdong province, a group of Chinese officials, scholars and company executives gathered last week to explore the business and cultural aspects of the route that dates back to the days of Marco Polo and now bears China’s new global ambitions under President Xi Jinping.
At the forum organised by the Guangdong provincial news office, the Zhuhai municipal government and China Economic Information Service, a business intelligence unit run by the official Xinhua news agency, Chinese delegates discussed how to improve China’s image along the route to help mainland companies, especially those in Guangdong, venture abroad. The province had a US$200 billion trade turnover with countries on the belt and road network last year, or a fifth of China’s national total, according to a report released at the forum.
