Retracing the path of ancient Chinese seafarers

Country hopes to boost trade by re-creating the old maritime Silk Road between China, southern Asia, Africa and Europe

As far back as AD 25 ships from China have been trading with the rest of the world on a maritime path of riches and discovery - a time when an ancient nation traded silk, ceramics and other luxuries to the world.

That time is here again, as China prepares to build a new waterborne Silk Road - one carrying a lot more than some copper coins.

President Xi Jinping announced the formation of a new maritime Silk Road in October last year in Indonesia. And while it still has not gone too far beyond a hodgepodge of dreams and promises, the prospects for substantial benefits, alliances and investments are now making serious waves.

One of its key players seems an unlikely candidate for a 21st century global commercial hub. Qinzhou (), a city of just under a million in Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region, is a relatively modest place compared with the might of the cities, financial interests and even countries invested in the creation of the maritime Silk Road.

Before the notion of the new maritime Silk Road reared its head, the city struggled. The port's construction in the 1950s was financed by local people, not the central government, and included donations of rice and eggs.

The port mainly traded with Vietnam, but it brought little relief to the struggling city. Neither of the two provincial governments in the area wanted it. Sometimes the city belonged to Guangxi, sometimes Guangdong. There were not many jobs in town, and young people mostly worked in Guangdong province.

But things are changing. More than a billion dollars is being spent on an industrial park in Qinzhou - for scale, that is about 10 flights for Shenzhou VI, China's second human spaceflight, launched in 2005. This massive influx of cash is having big secondary effects on the local economy, with plans for new industries such as biotechnology, IT and food processing.

Qinzhou appears up to the task. Just a few years ago the port city could not even handle one million tons, but today it is running at more than 60 million. People are flowing back, and the government is dealing with a sudden influx of industrial projects. Qinzhou is now included in China's ambitious high-speed railway plan to run tracks all the way to Vietnam and even Singapore.

"The three port cities in Guangxi - Qinzhou, Beihai and Fangchenggang - have now all been included in the Beibu Gulf Port Corporation," says Zhu Nian, professor of ocean trade at Qinzhou University, himself a Qinzhou local who has witnessed the city's transformation.

"China's coastal cities relied on exports for many years, and just a few years ago the export trade hit a wall. Also, China imposed a lot of limitations on exporting raw materials, which used to be our major exports. As a result, now the new port is mainly engaged in imports. Our major imports include coal from Vietnam, petrol from Malacca and the Middle East, and ore from Australia. All will provide fuel and materials to the gigantic plants in Qinzhou and neighboring provinces."

China is not putting all this money into the Beibu Gulf in a vacuum. The building of a maritime Silk Road obviously is not a question of paving the sea but one of partners, investment and cooperation. For that, one must look far beyond the small city of Qinzhou to places like Kuantan in Malaysia.

Far from its industrial sister in China, Kuantan is a tropical paradise with beautiful white sand beaches, gorgeous waterfalls and tourists around every corner. About 40 kilometers north of this tropical heaven is Kuantan port, another stop on China's maritime Silk Road.

Malaysia has been China's biggest trade partner in Southeast Asia since 2008. Last year, with the maritime Silk Road getting underway, China's exports to Malaysia grew 25.8 percent over the previous year, and the two countries' bilateral trade exceeded $100 billion for the first time.

China has had trouble sealing a deal in the South China Sea for foreign port use, so this port and the Malaysia-China Kuantan Industrial Park that comes with it is a major step forward in China's goal to re-create the maritime Silk Road of history and legend. Along those lines, things have not gone exactly swimmingly for China in Southeast Asia this year, with the widely reported anti-Chinese protests in Vietnam and other tensions with Southeast Asian countries. But this Silk Road may help calm the waters.

With its exports dropping, China desperately needs the new maritime and overland silk roads to deal with its surplus.

It has been hard going, but other countries are working with China to help build the "diamond decade" in Southeast Asia, from Cambodia to Myanmar. But it is important to remember that China's ancient maritime Silk Road touched a much broader area and there is no intention for Xi's maritime Silk Road to be left behind.

China has published a map of what it hopes the new maritime Silk Road will look like, and it is an impressive vision of modern trade and China's dream to be at the center of it.

The easternmost part is located in the capital of Fujian province, Fuzhou, which signed a deal with the China Africa Development Fund and the China Development Bank to put up 10 billion yuan ($1.6 billion; 1.29 billion euros). After that, the road winds its way through a smattering of Chinese cities, on to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, and Jakarta, Indonesia. The path shoots to Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, linking the Pacific Ocean and the Indian Ocean. This is the end of the line for Asia as the maritime path leads to Nairobi, Kenya, and from Kenya through the Middle East to Athens, fittingly ending in Venice - where it meets China's new overland Silk Road.

For now, China's new maritime Silk Road is a bit of a mystery. Time will tell if China once again connects East and West in a new and exciting way. Should that happen, it would surely evoke the spirit of Admiral Zheng He, who commanded expeditionary voyages that reached all the way to East Africa during the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644).

Courtesy of the World of Chinese

www.theworldofchinese.com

Ginger Huang contributed to this story.

(China Daily Africa Weekly 10/31/2014 page27)