Lecture 12: BRI

Question 1

Zheng He

Answer 1

He made several voyages to join the Eastern part of Africa, notably landing in today’s Somalia, Kenya, Yemen, and Oman.
- Sponsored by the Chinese administration, Zheng He would bring presents to vassals, tributaries, but also to impress peoples encountered along his journey.

• currently used as a symbol of peaceful intention of china, not expansionist, but tighten relations with vassals

Question 2

Routes Network of Tian-Shan Corridor

Answer 2

project to map and document the initial Section of the Silk Roads

• This zone is a 5,000 km section of the extensive Silk Roads network, stretching from Chang’an/Luoyang to the Zhetysu region of Central Asia.
  It originated between the II century BCE and the I century CE and remained in use until the 16th century.
  It permitted exchanges of activities in trade, religious beliefs, scientific knowledge, technological innovations, arts, literature.

Question 3

Yar city

Answer 3

Xinjiang, capital of Tocharian kingdom
Tomb of Zhang Qian, who paved the way to the establishment of the Road.

Question 4

One Belt One Road project

Answer 4

Launched by the Chinese government in 2013, after a visit of Xi Jinping to Kazakhstan and Indonesia, the basic idea of the project was to develop new markets, by building infrastructures in partner-countries for instance.
The project is present on the agenda of the 19th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party. It is also included in the Constitution.

Question 5

New Silk Road Economic Belt

Answer 5

connect China with Europe through Central and Western Asia.
- The network spans over follows the track of the Ancient Road, with one notable exception, the inclusion of Africa.
- Starting from Xi’an, it crosses ancient cities such as Urumqi, Tehran, Samarkand…
continues towards Helsinki, Athens, Rotterdam… The goal here is to build an “Eurasian land bridge”.

Question 6

21st Century Maritime Silk Road,

Answer 6

connect China with Southeast Asian countries, Africa, and Europe, is also part of it.

Question 7

the ideology of the project

Answer 7

based on transportation, infrastructure development, trade and investment, energy and natural resources, financial security, better allocation of resources, environmental issues.

Question 8

Malacca Dilemma

Answer 8

Hu Jintao in 2003.

There is only one maritime route to ship gas and oil from Arabia to China, through the Strait of Malacca. Plus, piracy is frequent on the way to the Strait.
It is therefore essential for China to secure some safe places and harbors, but also to find alternatives.

80% of China’s oil supply has to go through the Hormuz and Malacca and Southeast Sea route.
The government thought about creating alternate routes.
However, the Sunda Strait has shallow waters, and Lombok Strait and Makassar Strait make the routes longer, with a financial extra shipping cost estimated at $220 billion/year.