The origin of Silk Road can trace back to the 5th century BC. It was the major pathway for communication and trade between the Europeans and Asians at that time. On 7th September 2017, China's President Xi noted in his speech at Kazakhstan Nazarbayev...
The origin of Silk Road can trace back to the 5th century BC. It was the major pathway for communication and trade between the Europeans and Asians at that time. On 7th September 2017, China's President Xi noted in his speech at Kazakhstan Nazarbayev University that to build the Silk Road Economic Belt together. In October the same year, he again noted the initiative of building the 21st-Century Maritime Silk Road together during his visit to Central and Southeast Asia, which gained extensive international attention. Later, these two concepts “Silk Road Economic Belt” and “21st-Century Maritime Silk Road” were combined and known officially as the B&R (the Belt and Road) national strategy. Same as the Silk Road concept from ancient time, B&R strategy focuses on linking the Eurasia and the Ocean roads. Although B&R strategy gained many positive reaction international wide, however the New Criticism had challenged it with its domination right issue. This article is to study the strategic significance of B&R to better understand it. The article starts with the origin and current progresses of the ancient Silk Road and the B&R strategy. Following with an analysis of the basic concept, geographical range and trade relating issue of both ancient Silk Road and the B&R.
The analysis shown that the ancient Silk Road is the backbone of the B&R, yet is was not efficiently used for econnmic development nor for efficiently gaining trade benefits by China, but was mainly used by Persian and Arabs from Central Asia. With the geographical range and trading strategy of the ancient Silk Road aspects, it was restricted by lacking of transportation and information sharing technology. Today, B&R had overcame those problems with the support of great industrialization, informatization and global logistic system. It adheres the spirit of ancient Silk Road: friendship and sharing. It lays out five major goals to build shared future with related countries. Through facilities connectivity, unimpeded trade, financial integration, and people-to-people bonds, to achieve a better world peace and rapid development worldwide.