China’s joint venture with Eurasia

by Gergely Salát

CHINA HAS BECOME A GLOBAL PLAYER SEEKING TO REORGANISE ITS IMMEDIATE AND WIDER ENVIRONMENT WITH ITS BELT AND ROAD INITIATIVE (NEW SILK ROAD) TO BECOME ONE OF THE HUBS OF THE NETWORKS IT HAS CREATED. THIS WILL BE A MAJOR OPPORTUNITY FOR THE COUNTRIES OF EURASIA.

Until the 2000s, China’s position in the global economy was typical of peripheral players, but the situation has changed in the last decade and a half. China has moved (or moved back rather) towards the centre, and in many areas, from e-commerce through artificial intelligence and high-speed railway technology to robotics, it is now at the forefront of the world with quantitative growth replaced by qualitative progress.

China has turned towards Eurasia, as it can facilitate the success of its basic economic, political and security interests by reorganising the supercontinent. As for links with the West, the land strip to Europe is full of countries that are not part of the US sphere of interest and that have development needs that China is best placed to fulfil. It was to hold these natural Eurasian endeavours together that Beijing formulated the greatest development program of all time, the Belt and Road Initiative concept at the beginning of the 2010s.

The BRI is not a detailed program, but rather a vision of a Eurasia (with Africa connected) linked together by a dense network of highways, railways, sea and air routes; oil, gas, electricity and fiber-optic lines from China to Western Europe in which no legal barriers, customs borders or travel restrictions hinder the free movement of goods, capital and people.

10th anniversary of the Belt and Road

This year marks the 10th anniversary of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), China is considering hosting the third Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation, Xinhua reported. At the beginning of 2023, China signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on the joint construction of the BRI with Turkmenistan and signed an updated MoU on the BRI with the Philippines. The Asian-Pacific countries have full confidence in the "China engine," regional development and future cooperation.

The author is a sinologist, translator and associate professor at Pázmány Péter Catholic University and Eötvös Loránd University, and senior researcher at the Institute of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade