98
aspires to develop a large-scale infrastructure in order to
connect Africa and Eurasia mainland both by land and the
sea.
Chinese President Xi Jinping declared Silk Road
Economic Belt and 21st Century Maritime Silk Road project
for the first time abroad during his visit to Kazakhstan in
October 2013. He stated that the aforementioned projects
would create trade routes that would connect Turkic world,
Europe, Arab world and Africa to the East and the Southeast
Asia. China’s vision include railways, land routes, airlines,
seaways and pipelines. Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank
(AIBB) and Shanghai based BRICS New Development
Bank (NDB) were founded in order to finance this project
and a budget of 40 billion dollars have been allocated by
creating a New Silk Road Fund (Zhao, 2015: 6).
Titled One Belt One Road later on, this project is
now viewed as a great project that is expected connect China
to Southeastern Asia, North Africa, Islamic World and
Europe to one another while enabling countries to benefit
mutually and cooperate effectively. So;
One Belt: refers to economic cooperation along the
old “Silk Road” that is extending from China to Turkish
world and Europe
One Road refers to the Silk Road on sea in the 21
st
century. It is also the name for the cooperation between
China and Southeastern Asia as well as Indian Ocean and
Mediterranean basin.
Radius of “One Road One Belt” ASEAN is planned
to cover Southern Asia, the Turkish world, North Africa and
Europe while its 4.4 billion population and total economy of
24 trillion USD will constitute 63% and 29% of the world
total respectively. Ground-centered Belt starts at Chinese
city Xi’an where the historic Silk Road started and follows
Urumqi Uyghur Turkish autonomous region and a main
route to Moscow and Europe from Western Turkistan
including a high-speed railway of 80,000 kilometers. One of
the rail lines encompasses Singapore via Southern China and
Southern Eastern China as well as Gwadar port built by
China in the Arabian Sea via Pakistan from Eastern
Turkistan.
Xi Jinping stated that the New Silk Road Economic
Belt project was a “win-win proposal” and it would “reach 3
99
billion people and create a free trade zone that would enable
access to Europe and the Arabic world which had great
mining and energy resources” (Kadılar, Koparan, 2016: 47).
While sea transport still stands out as an effective
route in global transport and trade, why would China
allocate such a huge budget in order to revive the Silk Road
which had disappeared long time ago? Furthermore, what is
the rationale behind making such a huge investment in a
risky project that covers an area including Turks and the
Arab world where a strong state tradition does not exist,
instability persists and where global powers compete to hold
the high ground? These questions make people confused
about the whole situation.
China’s New Silk Road Initiative is actually based
on an idea put forward by the United States but China now
has taken over the project (Mankoff in Kodaman, Gonca,
2016: 1255). One of the main reasons why the USA
abandoned the project was because it lost its military bases
in Western Turkistan. Made public for the first time by U.S.
State Secretary Hillary Clinton in July 2011, “New Silk
Road Initiative” was a project designed to make Afghanistan
prosper after the war by creating a trade center between
Central Asia and the Southern Asia. However, the USA
followed an inconsistent and contradictory Eurasia policy
and that’s why China stepped in and took over the project
(McBride in Kodaman, Gonca, 2016: 1255).
Having become almost the most significant state
policy of People’s Republic of China today, the New Silk
Road Project or initiative is of interest for us Turks in many
ways. It is for that reason rationale behind China’s
determinism and willingness to implement this project needs
understanding.
A Feeling of Encirclement and Entrapment
People’s Republic of China began its investments in
Africa in 1960s. It assumed the role of a global actor by
necessity after becoming a member of WTO and its need for
raw material and energy safety in parallel with its growing
economy. Furthermore, “Chinese-type socialist market
economy” created in interaction with global capitalist system
agitated the country’s dominant socialist ideology and CCP
leadership has raised nationalist voices in order to mobilize
100
masses. New Chinese nationalists regarded its neighbors as
enemies who were conspirators and separatists. Particularly
the Japanese were at the center of attention of the Chinese
and controversy over Senkaku Island came to the fore. On
the other hand, serious problems erupted with Vietnam and
Philippines in the southern China Sea.
The USA and its allies began taking China seriously
after having conflict of interest with China in Asia, Africa
and the Muslim world. The USA’s initiative to consolidate
its power as global super power and return to Asia strategy
were adopted by the Obama administration. The USA has
shifted its power towards Indian-Pacific region as a reaction
to deepening global economic crisis as well as to threat from
China which has widened its focus point against American
hegemony. Obama’s “Shift toward China” policy has begun
to unite its allies through an economic bloc over Trans-
Pacific Partnership (TPP) with military ties in the region
governed against China.
The Chinese regime was forced to respond after
facing TPP which disposed it and a large-scale U.S. military
concentration in the region. The Chinese administration
finally tried to quell Washington while entering into an arms
race simultaneously, which would create only one result.
Led by the USA, countries such as Japan, South
Korea, Vietnam and Philippines that interpreted China’s
continuous development economically and militarily created
the “Pacific Bloc” in order to prevent China from expanding
in the Eastern and Southern China Sea and the Pacific,
which forced China to look for new routes. The Chinese
administration has chosen the weak Turkish-Islamic world
on the western side of the country as a way of breaking away
from the feeling of encirclement and entrapment in sea
routes.
An Opening Door to the West: Silk Road
As described briefly above, the Han Family (202
B.C. – 220 A.D.) had created the Silk Road in order to fence
off Hun pressure and threat from the North by making its
military and diplomatic initiatives intact. According to the
Chinese, their safety and welfare depended on ‘Western
World’. In fact, the country could expand toward the West
indefinitely as many regions in the West belonged to
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