First published: Financial Times, 5/05/2015
Beijing has tired of buying up endless volumes of US bonds
In a visit to Kazakhstan in 2013, Xi Jinping reminded his hosts of their shared commercial ties along the Silk Road, stretching back millennia. The Chinese president went on to propose the establishment of a Silk Road Economic Belt to bring new prosperity to Asia. The speech barely registered in the international media but less than two years later, the so-called One Belt, One Road plan — incorporating a Maritime Silk Road — has become the centrepiece of the president’s foreign policy and international economic strategy. Important commercial consequences for the region and global companies will go hand-in-hand with unpredictable geopolitical implications in parts of the world where the US, Japan, India and Russia all have material and competing interests….Read more>
