China’s President Xi Jinping will unveil his grand economic plan for the world on May 14 and 15 at an international summit on his “One Belt, One Road” policy initiative. Attended by 28 heads of state and top officials from more than 60 nations, the event is a coming out party for the Asian giant and will see Xi outline China’s plans to forge a new global economic order by drawing on the millennia-old tradition of the Silk Road trading route.
In truth, the summit is just the latest step in China’s evolution as a global power. The tendrils of Chinese influence have been gradually wrapping themselves around the globe and the once closed-off Asian nation is emerging as a potential superpower. We explore five ways China is changing lives – with its financial clout and its influence on culture, education, travel and the military balance of power.
Part one: Investment
China’s global investment
In a bustling street in Pakistan’s capital the air is thick with the familiar smell of mutton sizzling on charcoal. The plumes of smoke rising into the night sky are illuminated by something once uncommon here — the blinking red neon of a sign bearing the restaurant’s name in Chinese.
Gulab Khan Shinwari, the owner, stands at its entrance welcoming a steady stream of Chinese customers. “My restaurant is called Khyber Shinwari but everyone here calls it the CPEC Hotel, since so many Chinese customers have started arriving since the deal was announced.”
The China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, popularly known by its acronym of CPEC, has become a buzzword for longed-for economic prosperity in Pakistan. An integral part of China’s One Belt, One Road initiative, the corridor is a combination of projects ranging from road networks, an fiber optic cable project, railway lines, a deep-sea port, coal mines and solar farms that Pakistan views as a huge opportunity to develop its economy.
Following the ancient Silk Road that stretches from the Himalayas in Pakistan’s northern border with China all the way down to the Arabian Sea, the corridor was announced with much fanfare in 2015 when Chinese President Xi Jinping visited Islamabad and announced a $46 billion investment plan, roughly 20% of Pakistan’s economic output.
