February 7, 2017

"In October 2012, Wang Jisi, the influential dean of Peking University’s School of International Studies, published an opinion piece in China’s Global Times recommending that China rebalance its geopolitical strategy westwards towards Eurasia. Professor Wang’s Western strategy would be made state policy the following year when Chinese President Xi Jinping announced the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road, thereby expanding Professor Wang’s initial vision beyond the Eurasian landmass to the nations of the Indian and Pacific Oceans. The Silk Road Economic Belt and Maritime Silk Road together constitute both arms of the 'One Belt One Road' development framework. Their potential reach is enormous: China’s partners presently number over 60 nations with a combined population of 4.4 billion.

The Belt and Road as a mode of practical cooperation offers developmental benefits to China and its partners. While China’s partners will accelerate their economic development through the strategic construction of much-needed infrastructure, the Belt and Road offers China an engine for its new normal of single-digit growth. This new normal is the result of China’s transition from a manufacturing- to a consumer-based economy, and new engines of growth will be needed to replace the ones that had powered its double-digit growth during the first decade of the 2000s. China’s transition to its new normal has driven down global commodity prices, negatively impacting its commodity suppliers, and this global slowdown confirms that initiatives like the Belt and Road will be needed to stimulate future global growth.

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