Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Conceptualizing the Silk Road Initiative in China’s Periphery Policy

  • Published:
East Asia Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

While the Silk Route Initiative (SRI) appears to be a novel foreign policy strategy under Xi Jinping’s leadership, it is integral to China’s periphery policy (zhoubian zhengce). Arguably, periphery policy is rooted in the Chinese imperial history and has remained a salient aspect of state formation and foreign policymaking of the post-1949 China. Under Xi Jinping, it has acquired a preeminent foreign policy goal. This study puts the SRI in a historical framework and argues for the centrality of periphery in China’s domestic and foreign policy. Looking at the SRI from the prism of periphery, while suggesting an essential continuity in Chinese foreign policy and strategic thinking, also indicates that periphery is not simply a frontier strategy. Rather, it encompasses the whole gamut of Chinese domestic and foreign policy. Embedded thus in the periphery policy, the SRI is a well thought-out Chinese grand strategy to reclaim its geopolitical dominance in Asia and fulfill the goal of “China dream.” This strategy, in effect, challenges the US dominance and de-centers it from Asia and helps China to create a Chinese-centered order in Asia and beyond.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

Notes

  1. A recent study on the significance of the Qing for the study of the frontier in Chinese history has been done by Mark Elliot. Iterating the salience of the frontier in Chinese history, he says “not only is it one of the things that makes the Qing ‘Qing,’ it is one of the things that has made China what it is today” (p. 338).

  2. John K. Fairbank notes “the curious alternation between Chinese and barbarian political domination of the empire in the four periods of Tang-Song, Liao-Jin-Yuan, Ming and Qing” (p.7).

  3. Fairbank used the term “synarchy” to show barbarian participation in the institutions of the Han Chinese.

  4. On the growth of Chinese maritime power, Jung-Pang Lo’s work is instructive. He looks into the ecological and environmental factors propelling a maritime turn in Chinese history [24]. Mark Elvin’s work factors in barbarian impact demographic changes and migration to explain the growth of Chinese maritime power [14].

  5. While paying of tributes characterized China’s relations with the nomadic tribes from early on, a sophisticated formal institutional structure only appeared in the Ming times (1368–1644). A first extensive study of the tributary system is found in John K. Fairbank’s edited book in 1968 [18]. In the present times, there has emerged a plethora of studies on the tributary system questioning Fairbank’s thesis. These include studies done by Zhou Fangyin [30], Brantly Womack [31], Takeshi Hamashita [23], and Zhang Yongjin and Barry Buzan [32].

  6. Yuan-kang Wang’s study shows that in the Song-Liao international system (960–1125), due to power symmetry, the two great powers conducted their foreign policy on the basis of formal equality. While in the Song-Jin international system (1127–1234), the weaker Song China became a Jin vassal state.

  7. Reflecting on the perspective of the Qing government on the borders, Mosca writes, “…with so lengthy a border to manage, imperial surveillance was crisis-oriented,” (p. 12).

  8. Some early Chinese works in English that discussed the Chinese periphery strategy are by You Ji and Jia Qingguo [40] and Zhao Gancheng [41].

  9. One of the analysts from the CICIR says, “Because China is in the ‘unstable arc zone,’ the United States has strengthened military presence in Northeast Asia, Southeast Asia, South Asia and Central Asia, posing direct and indirect threats to China, thus increasing China’s military pressure from the East, South and the West” (p. 43).

  10. Ping-ti Ho’s study shows how the geographical boundaries of the present-day China was determined in the Qing period.

  11. Tong Lam shows “how the diverse territories and peoples, once conceptualized and governed by different frameworks, were being re-conceptualized using a unified framework under the geopolitical imperatives of the late nineteenth century.” In a similar vein, James Millward points out how the late Qing rulers “provincialized” Xinjiang in the nineteenth century jettisoning the “loose rein” system.

  12. Hamashita argues that the main issue in Japanese modernization was “how to cope with the Chinese dominance over commercial relations in Asia.” Korea was thus important for Japan in the task of decentering China.

  13. Xue Li and Xu Yanzhuo say that “Washington launched its rebalance strategy because of China’s rise. In the same way, Beijing put forward the OBOR initiatives partly in response to the negative impacts of the U.S. Asia-Pacific rebalance.”

References

  1. Wang, Jisi. (2012). China’s Search for a Grand Strategy. Foreign Affairs, 90 (2) (March–April), 68–79

  2. Wang, Dong and Yin Chengzhi. (2013). China’s Assessments of US Rebalancing to Asia. Paper presented at the 7th Berlin Conference on Asia Security (BCAS). July 1–2. https://www.swp-berlin.org/fileadmin/contents/products/projekt_papiere/BCAS2013_Wang_Dong.pdf. Accessed 15 October 2016.

  3. Yan, Xuetong. (2014). Silk Road Economic Belt Shows China’s New Strategic Direction: Promoting Integration with its Neighbors. Carnegie-Tsinghua Centre for Global Policy. http://carnegietsinghua.org/2014/02/27/silk-road-economic-belt-shows-china-s-new-strategic-direction-promoting-integration-with-its-neighbors. Accessed 27 April 2014.

  4. Wang, Yiwei. (2015). China’s ‘New Silk Road’: A Case Study in EU-China Relation. In Alessia Amighini and Axel Berkofsky (Eds), Xi’s Policy Gambles: the Bumpy Road Ahead. ISPI Report. http://www.ispionline.it/it/EBook/XiPolicyGambles.pdf. 15 October, 2016.

  5. Godement, Francois. (Ed.) 2015. One Belt, One Road: China’s Great Leap Outward. China Analysis, European Council on Foreign Relations (June). http://www.ecfr.eu/publications/summary/one_belt_one_road_chinas_great_leap_outward3055. Accessed 11 October 2016.

  6. Fallon, Theresa. (2015). The New Silk Road: Xi Jinping’s Grand Strategy for Eurasia. American Foreign Policy Interests, (37), 140–147. http://www.ou.edu/uschina/texts/Fallon.2015.AFPI.New_Silk_Road.pdf. Accessed 11 October 2016.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  7. Bloomberg Brief. (2015). One Belt, One Road: Assessing the Economic Impact of China’s Silk Road, July 2, 2015, https://issuu.com/davidhallusbct/docs/assessing_the_economic_impact_of_ch. Accessed 11 October 2016.

  8. Lo, Jung-Pang. (2009). The Emergence of China as a Sea Power During the Late Song and Early Yuan Periods. In Geoff Wade (Ed.), China and Southeast Asia (pp. 350–364). London: Routledge.

  9. Resource Portal on Belt and Road. (2016).The Belt and Road Initiative, 21 January, http://china-trade-research.hktdc.com/business-news/article/One-Belt-One-Road/The-Belt-and-Road-Initiative/obor/en/1/1X000000/1X0A36B7.htm

  10. Saran, Shyam. (2015). What China’s One Belt and One Road Strategy Means for India, Asia and the World. The Wire. October 9. thewire.in/12532/what-china-one-belt-and-one-road-strategy-means-for-india-asia-and-the-world/. Accessed on May 25, 2016

  11. Swaine, Michael D. (2015). Chinese Views and Commentary on the ‘One Belt, One Road’ Initiative. China Leadership Monitor, (47). http://www.hoover.org/sites/default/files/research/docs/clm47ms.pdf. 12 April, 2016.

  12. Foreign Ministry of People’s Republic of China. (2013). Xi Jinping: Let the Sense of Community of Common Destiny Take Deep Root in Neighboring Countries,” FMPRC, October 25, 2013. http://www.fmprc.gov.cn/mfa_eng/wjb_663304/wjbz_663308/activities_663312/t1093870.shtml. Accessed 18 June 2016.

  13. Xinhua. (2013). Xi Jinping: China to further friendly relations with neighboring countries. Xinhua.net. October 26, 2013. http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/china/2013-10/26/c_125601680.htm. Accessed 18 June 2016.

  14. Swaine, Michael D. (2014). Chinese Views and Commentary on Periphery Diplomacy. China Leadership Monitor (44) (summer). http://carnegieendowment.org/files/clm44ms.pdf . Accessed 25 March 2015.

  15. Lattimore, Owen. (1940). Inner Asian Frontiers of China. New York: American Geographical Society.

  16. Elliott, Mark. (2014). Frontier Stories: Periphery as Centre in Qing History. Frontiers of History in China, 9 (3), 336–360. DOI 10.3868/s020-003-014-0025-1

    Google Scholar 

  17. China’s Yearbook of Ethnic Works. (2003). State Ethnic Affairs Committee.

  18. Lewis, Mark Edward. (2007). The Early Chinese Empires: Qin and Han. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Belknap Press.

  19. Chang, Chun-Shu. (2007). The Rise of the Chinese Empire: Frontier, Immigration and Empire in Han China, Volume II. Michigan: University of Michigan Press.

  20. Fairbank, John K. (1953). Trade and Diplomacy on the China Coast: The Opening of the Treaty Ports, 1842–1854. Stanford: Stanford University Press.

  21. Fairbank, John K. (1957). Synarchy Under The Treaties. In John K. Fairbank (Ed.), Chinese Thoughts & Institutions (pp. 204–231). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

  22. Lewis, Mark Edward. (2007). China’s Cosmopolitan Empire: The Tang Dynasty. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Belknap Press.

  23. Elvin, Mark. (1973). The Pattern of the Chinese Past. London: Eyre Methuen.

  24. Rawski, Evelyn S. (2010). Chinese Strategy and Security Issues in Historical Perspectives. In Brantly Womack (Ed.), China’s Rise in Historical Perspective (pp. 63–87). Lanham, Boulder: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, INC.

  25. Fairbank, John K. (1968). A Preliminary Framework. In John K. Fairbank (Ed.), The Chinese World Order: Traditional China’s Foreign Relations (pp. 5–11). Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

  26. Zhou, Fangyin. (2011). Equilibrium Analysis of the Tributary System. The Chinese Journal of International Politics, 4, 147–178.

  27. Womack, Brantly. (2012). Asymmetry and China’s Tributary System. The Chinese Journal of International Politics, 5, 37–54.

  28. Hamashita, Takeshi. (2009). The Tribute System and Modern Asia. In Geoff Wade (Ed.), China and Southeast Asia (pp. 399–416). London: Routledge.

  29. Zhang, Yongjin and Barry Buzan. (2012). The Tributary System as International Society in Theory and Practice. The Chinese Journal of International Politics, 5, 3–36

  30. Zhang, Xiaotong. (2014). China’s Eurasian Pivot. The ASAN Forum, (December 1). http://www.theasanforum.org/chinas-eurasian-pivot/. Accessed 21 October 2016

  31. Zheng, Yongnian. (2010). Organizing China’s inter-state relations: from ‘tianxia’ (all-under-heaven) to the modern international order. In Zheng Yongnian (Ed.), China and International Relations: The Chinese view and the contribution of Wang Gungwu (pp. 293–321). London: Routledge.

  32. Zhao, Gancheng. (2003). China: Periphery and Strategy. In Mahavir Singh (Ed.), Asia Annual (pp. 52–69). Delhi: Shilpa.

  33. Mancall, Marc. (1968). The Ch’ing Tribute System: An Interpretive Essay. In John K. Fairbank (Ed.), The Chinese World Order: Traditional China’s Foreign Relations (pp. 63–89). Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press.

  34. Wang, Yuan-Kang (2013). Explaining the Tribute System: Power, Confucianism, and War in Medieval East Asia. Journal of East Asian Studies, 13, 207–232.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  35. Perdue, Peter C. (2003). A frontier view of Chineseness. In Giovanni Arrighi, Takeshi Hamashita and Mark Selden (Eds), The Resurgence of East Asia: 500, 150 and 50 year perspectives (pp. 51–77). London: Routledge.

  36. Mosca, Matthew W. (2013). From Frontier Policy to Foreign Policy. Stanford: Stanford University Press.

  37. Zarrow, Peter. (2005). China in War and Revolution, 1895–1949. London: Routledge.

  38. Esherick, Joseph W. (2006). How the Qing Became China. In Joseph W. Esherick, Hasan Kayali and Eric Van Young (Eds), Empire to Nation: Historical Perspectives on the Making of the Modern World (pp- 229-259). Boulder: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, INC.

  39. China Daily. (2014). Background: Connotations of Chinese Dream. May 03. http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2014npcandcppcc/2014-03/05/content_17324203.htm. Accessed 12 June 2016

  40. Kobrinskaya, Irina. (2016). Is Russia Coming to Terms with China’s ‘Silk Road’. Policy Memo, 439 (September 2). http://www.ponarseurasia.org/memo/russia-comes-terms-chinas-silk-road. Accessed 10 October 2016.

  41. Hamashita, Takeshi. (2009). Change and Continuity in East Asian 1800–2000: Dynamism and Transformation of Geo- Political China Region. Conference on: ‘Improving the Human Destiny’, Institute of Humanities and Social Sciences, Lingnan University (11–12 June). http://www.ln.edu.hk/ihss/humanconf/hamashita.pdf. Accessed 15 October 2016

  42. Ma, Ying and Zhao Gancheng. (2009). Evolution of Guiding Principles and Strategies of China’s Periphery Policy. Shanghai Institute for International Studies International Review, 2. http://www.siis.org.cn/en/zhuanti_view_en.aspx?id=10012. Accessed 24 May 2016.

  43. Bhattacharya, Abanti. (2010). China’s Discourse on Regionalism and What it Means for China. Asia-Pacific Review, 17 (1), 97–123.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  44. Tian, Qunjian. (2004). China Develops its West: motivation, strategy and prospects. Journal of Contemporary China, 13 (41) (November), 611–636.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  45. Barabantseva, Elena. (2007). Development as Exclusion: Ethnic Minorities in China’s Western Development Project. BICC Working Paper Series, (7), October. http://www.bicc.ac.uk/files/2012/06/07-Barabantseva.pdf. Accessed 10 October 2016

  46. CICIR Debate. (2005). Greater Periphery and China, the US and Neighbours. Contemporary International Relations, 15 (1) (January), 33–47.

  47. Bhattacharya, Abanti. (2005). Revisiting China’s Peaceful Rise: Implications for India. East Asia, 22 (4) (Winter), pp. 59–80.

  48. Wang, Hongying and James N. Rosenau. (2009). China and Global Governance. Asian Perspective, 33(3), 5–39.

    Google Scholar 

  49. Su, Hao. (2008). Harmonious World: The Conceived International Order in Framework of China’s Foreign Affairs. National Institute of Defence Studies Report. http://www.nids.go.jp/english/publication/joint_research/series3/pdf/3-2.pdf. Accessed 16 October 2016.

  50. Chen, Xiangyang. (2006). Draw Up New ‘Greater Periphery’ Strategy As Soon As Possible. Liaowang, July 22, World News Connection, online. http://toolkit.dialog.com/intranet/cgi/present?STYLE=739318018& PRESENT=DB=985, AN=229300386, FM=9, SEARCH=MD.GenericSearch. Accessed 10 June 2010.

  51. People’s Daily Online. (2003). China’s Periphery Diplomacy Carries a Heavy Weight. December 18. http://English.peopledaily.com.cn/200312/18/eng20031218_130696.shtml. Accessed 12 June 2010.

  52. Roy, Bhaskar. (2010). Is China Preparing for Strategic Intervention. Chennai Centre for China Studies C3S Paper, 494 (May). http://www.c3sindia.org/strategicissues/1345. Accessed 25 May 2016.

  53. Chen, Xianyang. (2010). Importance of China’s Neighborhood. China Daily. May 07.

  54. Xinhua. (2012). Xi pledges great renewal of Chinese nation. Xinhuanet.com. November 29. http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/china/2012-11/29/c_132008231.htm. Accessed 18 June 2016

  55. Ho, Ping-ti. (1967).The Significance of the Ch’ing Period in Chinese History. Journal of Asian Studies, 26 (2), 189–95.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  56. Lam, Tong. (2009). Recolonizing the Frontiers and Nationalizing the Empire: The Making of the Late Qing Geobody and the Social Body. Paper presented at the Empires and Colonies Workshop, University of Chicago, Feb 25.

  57. Millward, James A. (2007). Eurasian Crossroads: A History of Xinjiang. London: Hurst & Company.

  58. Batbayar, Bat-Erdene. (1999). Twentieth Century Mongolia. Cambridge: White Horse Press.

  59. Schaik, Sam Van. (2012). Tibet: A History. New Delhi: Amaryllis.

  60. Ikenberry, John G. (2004). American Hegemony and East Asian Order. http://www.ou.edu/uschina/SASD/SASD2005/2005readings/Ikenberry2004%20AmHegEA.pdf. Accessed 15 October 2012.

  61. Xue, Li and Xu Yanzhuo. (2015), How China Can Perfect Its ‘Silk Road’ Strategy. The Diplomat (April 09). http://thediplomat.com/2015/04/how-china-can-perfect-its-silk-road-strategy/. Accessed 20 October 2016.

  62. Zhao, Minghao. (2015). ‘March Westwards’ and a New Look on China’s Grand Strategy. Mediterranean Quarterly, 26 (1), 97–116.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  63. Ng, Jasmine. Steel Demand in China Dropping Through ‘16 as Growth Slows. Bloomberg. April 21, 2015. http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-04-20/steel-demand-in-china-to-decline-through-2016-global-group-says. Accessed 10 October 2016.

  64. Xinhua. (2016). Full Text of Chinese President Xi Jinping’s Address at AIIB Inauguration Ceremony (1). January 16. http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2016-01/16/c_135015659.htm. Accessed 12 June 2016.

  65. Keith, Ronald. (2005). China from the Inside Out. London: Pluto Press.

  66. Tan, Christopher. (2016). 26 China-made MRT trains sent back to fix defects. The Straits Times, July 05. http://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/transport/china-made-mrt-trains-sent-back-to-fix-defects. Accessed 6 July 2016.

  67. The Rakyat Post. (2016). Thailand under pressure to cancel high-speed rail project. April 03. http://www.therakyatpost.com/world/2016/04/03/thailand-under-pressure-to-cancel-high-speed-rail-project/. Accessed 6 July 2016.

  68. Ministry of External Affairs. Government of India. (2015). Speech by Foreign Secretary at Raisina Dialogue in New Delhi. March 2. http://mea.gov.in/Speeches-Statements.htm?dtl/26433/Speech_by_Foreign_Secretary_at_Raisina_Dialogue_in_New_Delhi_March_2_2015. Accessed on May 25, 2016.

  69. Deshpande, Rajeev. (2016). 15K Pakistanis Guarding 7K Chinese Working on China-Pakistan Economic Corridor. Times of India (September 12). http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/pakistan/15K-Pakistanis-guarding-7K-Chinese-working-on-China-Pakistan-Economic-Corridor/articleshow/54283602.cms

  70. Raza, Irfan. (2016). CPEC Could Become Another East India Company. Dawn (October 18). http://www.dawn.com/news/1290677. Accessed 20 October 2016.

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of East Asian Studies, University of Delhi, Delhi, 110007, India

    Abanti Bhattacharya

Authors
  1. Abanti Bhattacharya
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Abanti Bhattacharya.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Bhattacharya, A. Conceptualizing the Silk Road Initiative in China’s Periphery Policy. East Asia 33, 309–328 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12140-016-9263-9

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12140-016-9263-9

Keywords

Search

Navigation