The Urban Origins of China’s Belt and Road Initiative – Viewing Guide

Vocabulary of Note

• The Belt and Road Initiative, or BRI – BRI is a policy to develop two new trade routes connecting China with the rest of the world where it will invest in building infrastructure, like roads, railways, highways, as well as mines, and other economic opportunities [0:11]
• What is the “Belt” – The northern Silk Road economic “belt” is an historic trade route from China across Eurasia to the Middle East and Europe over land
• What is the “Road” – A southern, maritime Silk Road route connecting China, Southeast Asia, Africa, and Europe, also follows historic trade routes by sea This longer route incorporates fueling stations, ports, bridges, industry, and infrastructure through Southeast Asia and into the Indian Ocean
• Infrastructure – the basic facilities and systems that serve a country, city, or area, such as transportation, power plants, highways, bridges, and schools [0:27]
• Strategic competition – the idea that BRI is a way for China to project power and influence over the world [0:38]
• Socialist era – From 1949–1978 when the People’s Republic of China was established as a socialist country, the state controlled and organized all jobs and companies there was little to no free trade during this era and China closed its borders to much of the world [1:35]
• Reform era – since 1978 China allowed private sales of goods, and the state controlled less of it, and also opened up to trade with the rest of the world [1:40]
• Liberalizing economy – when there is a lessening of government regulations and restrictions in the economy and more possibility for private businesses to develop [1:50]
• Globalization – the growing interdependence of the world’s economies, cultures, and populations, brought about by cross-border trade in goods and services, technology, and flows of investment, people, and information which is criticized for leading to more inequality [1:57]
• Ladder step theory of development – a metaphor to describe how a country’s economic development moves up in stages, where some areas become wealthier and more complex (like up the rungs of a ladder) before others, and then the development spreads to the rest of the country In China, this did not happen The mountainous rural areas in China’s west lag way behind the eastern coastal eastern region [4:52]

Outline of Presentation – with [Timecode]                                  

Exploring the BRI from China’s perspective/urban pressures [1:14]

• BRI is seen as part of China’s strategic competition with the USA, used to project power and influence over the world – an aggressive act
• But there are complex problems in China related to regional variation, economic development, and urbanization that are domestic drivers of BRI

What happened since the reform era [1:45]

• Income inequality grew: some regions got very rich but some became poorer; the poorer areas, mostly rural, are mountainous, with limited transportation and infrastructure
• There is a lot of regional inequality in China: poor, rural areas in western China and wealthy eastern coastal ones, which has been true for a long time (See map of China)
• China is roughly the same size as the US but has 4 times the population [3:54]
• Beginning in the late 1990s China’s leaders became worried that regional inequality could lead to social unrest [6:41] and so focused on policies to address this

Policies leading up to BRI

• In 1999 the Great Western Redevelopment Campaign [7:22] was an attempt to redistribute economic activity with a series of new policies directed at building infrastructure, such as a rail network to and from the western interior region of China, to bring labor and goods into that area
• But the plan instead increased regional inequality because labor and capital moved in the opposite direction, away from the western interior to the eastern coastal areas BRI is a way to break through this barrier and encourage more economic development and urbanization in the west of the country

Regional example: Chongqing [11:41]

• BRI is based on Chongqing’s experiences to expand urbanization in the west
• The government uses the Belt and Road to encourage and support businesses in these central regions, encouraging businesses to compete for Belt and Road contracts
• Chongqing is a huge “municipality,” almost like a province, in southwest China It is a landlocked, mountainous region, over 30 million people, but with a largely rural population

Plans to change Chongqing: “One Circle Two Wings” [15:41]

• A regional strategy to expand the city, and bring populations from the mountainous eastern region (the wings) and relocate them to the “one circle” or the central city of Chongqing
• The two rural “wing” areas would be used for tourism or mining
• Chongqing would become a global city like London or Paris that drives the global economy where you find financial services, law firms, and “producer services”

Models for Chongqing’s Future

• Shanghai’s Pudong district, a high-tech manufacturing center (Notebook computers to export) [18:37]
• Singapore’s Marina Bay Sands, and a center of accounting services [18:59]

Barrier to this development [21:30]

• Chongqing is landlocked and has to ship goods to eastern ports on the coast for export
• It takes 45 days to get goods from Chongqing to the market by train and then ship them

Early Solutions

• An experiment preceding BRI was the China Railway Express, a trade train that went from Chongqing through Central Asia to cities like Rotterdam, Holland in 16 days [22:31]
• The “One River, Two Flanks, Three Oceans” strategy to bring goods from Chongqing’s port on the Yangtze River to the Pacific Ocean, Atlantic Ocean, or Indian Ocean through different routes, or flanks [24:20]

BRI solution

• Northern route: The overland Silk Road Economic Belt (like the China Railway Express) [26:07]\
• Southern route: The maritime Silk Road (like the second flank), trade route
• The goal was for these new, more efficient trade routes to lead to the creation of new economic capitals in central China, such as a “megaregion” that would combine three giant cities in the west to balance the historical, eastern centers of development (like Beijing and Tianjin, on the eastern coast) This new “megaregion” is called “ChengYuGui,” including Chongqing, Chengdu, and Guiyang linked by high speed rail [28:09]