THE subtext to the extravagant Belt and Road summit last week is clear: there is a new sheriff in town, he is not American and a lot less imperious. In the age of Brexit and Trump, the timing of China’s grandiose flexing of economic might – articulated through its conscious rediscovery of a glorious past when silk was gold – could not be more opportune for its purposes. As the rest of the world watches the West’s old standard bearers of internationalism grapple with domestic waves of populist protectionism, China is proposing to the developing world its alternative sphere of influence, under which we are told we may reap economic rewards.
Yet, even as the collective recites the new favourite phrase “win-win cooperation”, it must concede to the wisdom of an older Western adage which teaches that usually, “there is no such thing as a free lunch”. The planned forays spanning from Jakarta to Rotterdam, if completed to fruition, will redraw the global trading and geopolitical map at a scale unseen in generations, into one which puts China firmly in the driving seat of a new age of globalisation. That in itself ought to be food for thought for all countries. For one, as susceptible to external trends as Malaysia is, a full understanding of what China is really after and a considered set of measures to best position ourselves is even more essential.
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