The Dawn of Eurasia by Bruno Maçães

Author:Bruno Maçães
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780241309261
Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd
Published: 2017-11-29T16:00:00+00:00

PRACTICE IS THE TEST OF TRUTH

‘We already knew what your ideas were and we disagree.’

I had just given a short presentation on the Belt and Road at the Chongyang Institute for Financial Services at Renmin University, but the Executive Dean of the influential think-tank, Wang Wen, explained that he already knew my ideas well. After I had presented them the night before at a seminar at Peking University, they had been discussed by all field experts on their usual messaging app. Or rather, they had already been fully criticized and dismissed.

‘For you geopolitics is the most important thing. But let me ask you, have you read the official strategy document on the Belt and Road? Is the word geopolitics there?’

Wang Wen was referring to a Chinese government document issued in March 2015 with the title, ‘Vision and Actions on Jointly Building Silk Road Economic Belt and 21st-Century Maritime Silk Road’. The Silk Road Economic Belt focuses on bringing together China, Central Asia, Russia and Europe across the Eurasian landmass. It is no coincidence that the land component is called an economic belt: a road is just a transport link between two points, a belt is a densely occupied economic corridor for trade, industry and people. The Maritime Silk Road is designed to go from China’s coast to Europe through the South China Sea and the Indian Ocean in one route, and from China’s coast through the South China Sea to the South Pacific in the other. At sea, the initiative will focus on building smooth, secure and efficient transport routes connecting major sea ports. Together, the land and sea components will strive to connect about sixty-five countries. The preferred abbreviation in China for the combined project is – unsurprisingly – the Belt and Road, 带一路.

The document offers a vision of greater economic integration between mutually complementary economies. It is meant to promote the orderly and free flow of economic factors, a more efficient allocation of resources and deeper market integration. Importantly, the initiative is supposed to abide by market rules. There is indeed no mention of geopolitical considerations. They were either never considered, or everything was carefully checked and revised to make it read like a business plan. Wang Wen insisted that my Western way of thinking emphasized distinctions and opposition, while the Chinese, at least those that had not been infected by the same doctrines, were interested in co-operation and agreement. There is no way other countries will accept Western values and ideas, he said, but they will accept Chinese roads and power stations.

‘Do you think that is just the public doctrine? Do you think there is a secret doctrine which is not in the document? That is impossible. China is a very big country with many regional and local governments. Imagine the confusion if they were told one thing and expected to do something else.’

I sat back in my chair. Of course there was no secret doctrine. I would accept that the Chinese authorities had no interest in

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