China recently unveiled an action plan for its controversial One Belt, One Road initiative to link its economy with the rest of Asia, Africa, the Middle East and Europe. Known as the ‘new silk roads’, it combines new infrastructure networks of roads, railway lines, ports to strengthen trade, investment, and people-to-people cooperation.
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However, Yun Sun, resident fellow and China foreign policy expert at the Stimson Center in Washington DC, thinks there is more to the initiative than external strategic and political calculations. “The plan is primarily an economic campaign designed to serve China’s economic restructuring and export needs. It will benefit the region, as well as China,” she says.
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