Running Header: The Maritime Silk Road Twists and Turns Along the Maritime Silk Road By: Tedric Hadeen California State University Maritime Academy The Maritime Silk Road 1 Abstract The Maritime Silk Road is a Chinese foreign policy launched in 2013 as a part of China’s One Belt One Road Initiative. The Maritime Silk Road is a vast infrastructure and investment project that stretches from eastern China to Europe. China instituted the MSR with the objective of securing important Sea Lanes of Communication, expansion of trade through infrastructure investments, and to increase its influence to a global scale. This paper aims to investigate the following research questions based on the case studies of Sri Lanka and Myanmar: How do Chinese interactions between itself, Sri Lanka and Myanmar differ because of China’s distinct goals in each country?; What are the economic, geopolitical, and naval goals China will achieve by means of investment in Sri Lanka and Myanmar? How does the MSR, used as a foreign policy, aid China’s rise as a global power? In conclusion, China used numerous un-economical projects to debt trap Sri Lanka to achieve a footprint in the Indian Ocean, with the lease of Hambantota port. This move secures Chinese trade in the region of its rival, India, and could give China a forward presence advantage in coming conflicts. China pursues a mutual beneficial trade relationship in Myanmar through infrastructure projects in Myanmar’s hinterland. China is using these projects to increase trade efficiency into central China while decreasing its dependence on the Malacca straits for trade. This relationship provides China with energy security, overland access to the Indian Ocean, and a growing export market. For Myanmar, it provides needed infrastructure and technology to expand its economy, which will help solve Myanmar’s social unrest. The Maritime Silk Road 2 Tedric Hadeen Twists and Turns Along the Maritime Silk Road Introduction “Connectivity, including infrastructure, projects have long been recognized as an integral element of global political and economic change as well as a reflection of new political and economic realities” (Blanchard & Flint, 2017, p. 1). China has risen to become a powerful global economy in recent times. This is partially due to their aggressive foreign policy known as the “Maritime Silk Road” (MSR). The MSR an infrastructure and investment project along China's key trade routes, with strategic partners, to ensure China's economic and strategic well-being. The MSR is the maritime embodiment of the larger Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and is meant to facilitate increased investment and collaboration between China and countries that lay along the ancient Silk Road. The Maritime Silk Road was first conceptualized in 2013 when president Xi Jinping made a speech at the Indonesian parliament, calling for a “close knit China-ASEAN community and offered guidance on constructing a 21st Century Maritime Silk Road” (Xinhua, 2015, para. 6). The Maritime Silk Road strategy was created to achieve three main goals. First, China is looking to continue its unprecedented economic growth and must explore new energy and natural resources. Secondly, the largely export based country is beginning to assert itself as a global hegemon and are conducting strategic policies in the South China Sea, Indian Ocean, Mediterranean and Africa to restructure global trade around China. (Klemensits, 2018). This is an effort to increase their export capacity as well as their trading partners’ ability to receive such exports. Thirdly, and unstated by China, it is widely believed that China aspires to use this economic initiative as a geopolitical power move to spread their hegemony and become an The Maritime Silk Road 3 influence of power on the global scale through the use of “puppet states” (states whose government is controlled or is influenced heavily by the government of another country) and a growing navy. (Klemensits, 2018). The MSR is one of two aspects that are conjoined under the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). The Silk Road Economic Belt (SREB) is the land-based version of the MSR, which focuses on road and railroad infrastructure. The MSR and SREB connect at various points during the plan but do not solely rely on each other. Just as the MSR is under the BRI, the “Cabbage” and Salami strategy are sub-strategies to the MSR. The cabbage strategy shows the growing power of China in the South China Sea region and is used to slowly acquire more ocean by claiming islands, which extend the Chinese territorial waters. “The String of Pearls” strategy refers to the spread of Chinese power through man-made islands and foreign-leased ports. Figure 1: Belt and Road Initiative, An accurate representation of Chinese infrastructure projects attached to their Belt and Road Initiative. Funaiole, M., & Hillman, J. (2018, April 2). China’s Maritime Silk Road Initiative: Economic Drivers and Challenges. Retrieved October 4, 2018, from https://www.csis.org/analysis/chinas- maritime-silk-road-initiative-economic-drivers-and-challenges Thesis Statement and Research Question I am interested in this topic because China’s investment in these countries has not only benefited it economically, but also strategically and works to extend the countries global The Maritime Silk Road 4 influence. There are three main questions that will be answered in this thesis. First, how do Chinese interactions between itself, Sri Lanka and Myanmar differ because of China’s distinct goals in each country? Secondly, what are the economic, geopolitical, and naval goals China will achieve by means of investment in Sri Lanka and Myanmar? Thirdly, how does the MSR, used as a foreign policy, aid China’s rise as a global power? Case Studies In this paper, I have chosen two countries in which to examine the MSR’s actions, effects, and overall strategy. Sri Lanka and Myanmar have both been targets of Chinese MSR ambitions. I will be looking exploring Chinese projects in these countries. I have chosen Sri Lanka and Myanmar as my case studies because China has interests in each, but for different reasons. Their actions and strategies in these regions reflect the different needs of China. This enables me to look at these countries and determine what economic, geopolitical, and naval interests China has in them and how these various interests are pursued through use of the MSR. Background The term Silk Road was originally used as the name for the ancient trade route that ran from East Asia to Western Europe. This was the longest trade route in the world at the time and was a large proponent of cultural and economic exchange. It was key to the exchange of food, goods, the spread of religious thought, and cultural customs across a vast expanse. (Hansen, 2012). “Through these routes, Buddhism, Islam and Arab astronomy, calendar and medicine found their way to China, while China's four great inventions and silkworm breeding spread to other parts of the world. More importantly, the exchange of goods and know-how spurred new ideas. For example, Buddhism originated in India, blossomed in China and was enriched in Southeast Asia. Confucianism, which was born in China, gained appreciation by European thinkers such as Leibniz and Voltaire” (Yamei, 2017, para. 6). The Maritime Silk Road 5 China repurposed the term Silk Road in 2013 when president Xi Jinping announced the Belt and Road policy, which is broken into two sections: One Belt One Road strategy and the New Maritime Silk Road strategy, The MSR is the focus in this report. (Xinhua, 2015). The Chinese economy has been steadily growing since the takeover of the Peoples Republic of China (PRC) under Mao Zedong. It only faltered during the period of the Great Leap Forward, between 1958 and 1962. During this period, China opened up to foreign investment for the first time in decades, which helped boost Gross Domestic Product (GDP) from six to nine percent where it held steady from 1978 to 2012. (Hirst, 2015). During this time, China began a rapid urbanization process, which, in part, has been attributed to the economic boom. People in the rural areas flocked to new cities in the hope of better pay in factories. The low wages and industrialization saw China turn into the largest exporter country in the world and the second largest economy. (Hirst, 2015). Early Development of the MSR The Peoples Republic of China (PRC) initiated the MSR because they realized the country could not continue its high economic growth without a remodeling of its economic and foreign policy. The Chinese economy is extremely strong but unbalanced and does not have enough wealth in its domestic consumer base for continued growth. “…that consumption is very low, especially household consumption, which is at only one-third of GDP” (Dollar, 2015, para. 3). China also saw its need to grow in strength by spreading its global influence as it moves from a developing nation to being a global power. The MSR was born of both these needs. China first approached Kazakhstan and Indonesia about the SREB and MSR initiatives in 2013. (Xinhua, 2015). This is symbolic of both the SREB and MSR since Indonesia contains the Malacca Strait and overland railways would pass through Kazakhstan. Kazakhstan and China The Maritime Silk Road 6 began construction on a jointly funded port in eastern China. The Chinese began laying railroad tracks across Kazakhstan and Central China. The year 2014 was significant in Silk Road development as twenty-two countries signed on to the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) as stakeholders. The Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank The AIIB was created by the Chinese with a net worth of fifty billion dollars. It is the artery through which China pumps foreign investments to the other member countries.