In 2013, the new General Secretary of the Communist Party in China, President Xi Jinping, unveiled an ambitious initiative designed to connect excess manufacturing capacity within China to Eurasia. His vision for the re-establishment of China as the worlds ‘Middle Kingdom’ had begun as a young CCP member and was to become a reality under his watch. The execution of this multi-Trillion USD plan would be on the back of increased investment by China, both financially and diplomatically, to recreate the ancient land-based silk road and a new maritime network of sea ports, or roads. This plan became known as the One Belt One Road (OBOR) initiative up to 2016 and Belt and Road (B&R) beyond that.
As the plan has rolled out since 2014, to date over $1.8TrillionUSD worth of Chinese money has been leant to over 30 countries, most of whom are either under-developed or developing. These loans, with interest rates as high as 16%, have had few but very strict conditions. Each project, strategically chosen, has included road and rail lines as well as ports. Most recently, 6 of these countries have either defaulted or are near to it. Fiji, Vanuatu, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Nepal and Bangladesh.
Explore the Historical context of the Chinese populations enthusiasm. Identify key events that led them to drive such an ambitious initiative of debt. What are the main challenges for business’ along the B&R? Identify at least 3 risks associated from a Chinese National perspective providing examples. Finally, considering the vulnerability of those countries listed above, what are some policies you would change to mitigate the risk of economic or diplomatic tension with China? Provide logical illustrations of the most likely outcome of such changes.
You should do this in no more than 20 pages (not including abstract, references and appendices). Use a 12-point font, line spacing of 1.5. APA referencing is required for the MBA program. This is to be turned in using SafeAssign on LearnJCU. Be sure to read the document posted on LearnJCU about internet research.
