What is One Belt, One Road in China?

Mackenzie Lange, Bachelor Anthropology & Chinese, University of Queensland

Updated Sep 4, 2018

One country, China, found itself overproducing resources due to domestic policies. That’s bad. They also found themselves increasingly needing a stable world and friendly trading partners. That’s good. And most importantly, they found themselves able to build overseas. That’s great (for China).

So China started doing business deals. They would build stuff for countries not able to, either due to pricing or a lack of local know-how. You need a port, airport or dam? China’s your man, from the resources to the labour, and when it's done a new or stronger trade route would be in a place.

Incidentally, other countries find their economies strengthened, which is of minor interest to China, and find themselves inclined to support China politicially, which is quite interesting to China. Because China didn’t ask for corruption to be lowered in return for a loan, or for the introduction of ethnic minority quotas. They just wanted to do business, and people liked that.

And what European and American leaders interpreted as moral apathy, China’s new partners saw as a refreshing willingness to actually do business and help people. From French diplomatic cables regarding Djibouti:

Sarkozy warned that China's disinterest in improving governance and economic transparency would hurt African interests in the end; Guelleh noted that China is the only major donor to support critical infrastructure needs.

So China was doing well, and they wanted to expand their business to open new markets and become strong enough to challenge American dominance over China. They decided to revive their most successful trade project ever, the Silk Road, as ‘The Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st-century Maritime Silk Road’ or for short, the One Belt, One Road project (OBOR).

But of course, the world is a complicated place.

Sometimes the deals made result in everyone walking away better off, like the Mombasa–Nairobi Standard Gauge Railway project. But sometimes the client couldn’t pay its debts, and Chinese companies get to pick up cheap real estate. China isn’t a charity, they’re a country with businesses to grow and they never claimed otherwise. They need a port in Sri Lanka? They build Hambantota. And when Sri Lanka couldn’t pay their debts, a Chinese company stepped in to take advantage.

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