The Belt and Road Initiative, when first unveiled by Xi Jinping in 2013, was envisioned as even bigger and grander than America''s Marshall Plan. Famously referred to as the ''New Silk Route'', it proposed an overland ''Silk Road Economic Belt'' connecting China with Europe through Central Asia and the ''Maritime Silk Road'' that the Chinese claim existed in ancient times across the Indian Ocean. The BRI would not only restore China''s glory as a global trading nation, but also establish its status as the world leader, overtaking the United States.
About the Author
Bertil Lintner is a Swedish journalist, author and strategic consultant who has been writing about Asia for nearly four decades. He was formerly the Myanmar correspondent of the Far Eastern Economic Review and Asia correspondent for the Swedish daily, Svenska Dagbladet, and Denmark's Politiken. He currently works as a correspondent for Asia Times. He has written extensively about Myanmar, India, China and North Korea in various local, national and international publications of over thirty countries. He mainly writes about organized crime, ethnic and political insurgencies and regional security. He has published several books, including China's India War and Great Game East. In 2004, Lintner received an award for excellence in reporting about North Korea from the Society of Publishers in Asia and, in 2014, another award from the same society for writing about religious conflicts in Myanmar.