China’s geoeconomic strategy by One Belt One Road (OBOR) to become a new hegemony in global economy: is China more Liberal than US?
China’s economic growth that occurred since the early 1980s has made China as the second largest economy in the world in 2011. In 2021, China’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) was recorded at USD 14.7 trillion, only behind USD 6.2 trillion from the United States around 20.93 trillion USD. This positive economic trend is predicted to continue increasingly so that it will replace the current hegemony of the United States economy. On the other hand, China also continues to boost its economic growth by formulating strategic policies. In fact, with its foreign policy that tends to be ‘proactive’, China has attracted a lot of attention from Western countries. One of the foreign policy breakthroughs that tends to be a very striking foreign policy is One Belt One Road (OBOR) initiative. OBOR basically has two project focuses, namely the Silk Road Economic Belt and the Maritime Silk Road Initiative. The initial step of the OBOR initiative was marked by President Xi Jinping’s official speech in Kazakhstan and Indonesia in 2013. In his statement, Xi Jinping said that the Silk Road Economic Belt was used to connect China’s land economic routes with Europe and the Maritime Silk Road Initiative (MSRI) used to connect China’s sea economic routes with Russia, Central Asia, and Europe (especially the Baltic region).
China’s mega-project can be included to be an economic-based regional integration process involving international actors between continents. Furthermore, in relation to persuasion efforts with member countries, China offers several benefits of cooperation. The first benefit is policy coordination, this includes strengthening political trust, intergovernmental macro cooperation, and new cooperation agreements. The second benefit is the facilities connectivity, this aspect is related to increasing the connectivity of infrastructure development plans and technical standard systems, strengthening the development of international main routes, and the formation of infrastructure networks that connect all sub-regions in Asia, and between Asia, Europe and Africa. The third benefit offered is unimpeded trade, this includes several collaborations such as cooperation in the customs sector, increasing investment by removing trade barriers, expanding markets, and strengthening cooperation in developing industries. Fourth, China also offers financial integration, this sector consists of strengthening financial cooperation, building currency stability, and strengthening cooperation between the China-ASEAN bank association and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) bank association. And last but nat the least, China tried to promote cooperation based on people to people bond, this involves any cooperation between Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) and countries, bridging communication between political parties and parliament, and cooperation in other private sectors such as education, technology and tourism.
What is conducted by China with the OBOR mega-project, emphasizes how geo-economics is an important instrument in strengthening its hegemony in the international world. Geoeconomics itself can be defined as a term used to describe how geographies or regions can be integrated into economic tools. Until 2021, there are 140 countries that joined OBOR with 40 countries from Sub-Saharan Africa, 34 countries from Europe and Central Asia, 25 countries from East Asia and the Pacific, 17 countries from the Middle East and North Africa, 18 countries from Latin America and the Caribbean and 6 countries from Southeast Asia.
Then how is the relationship between China’s economic practices and liberalism? In liberalism view, an economic cooperation is the basis of thought. By conducting economic cooperation, each country will be interdependency. At this point, we agree! OBOR is a concrete form of how 140 countries are geoeconomically bound in one cooperation. Periphery countries (third countries) in this cooperation will usually supply resources to the core country. On the other hand, the core country, with its industrial and technological advanced, will supply technological and manufactured products to the periphery countries. Not only regional integration cooperation, through several principles offered, China also implements free trade. This can be seen clearly through the information promoted by the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) People’s Republic of China in 2015 on the “principles” and “cooperation priorities” of OBOR. In OBOR principle, for example, the Chinese government states,
“It covers, but is not limited to, the area of the ancient Silk Road. It is open to all countries, and international and regional organizations for engagement, so that the results of the concerted efforts will benefit wider areas “.
The goal of OBOR is none other than to protect and not limit all member states, both on a regional and international scale, to cooperate with each other in order to get broad benefits. Then this principle is emphasized in the formulation of priority for OBOR cooperation. China uses the concept of unimpeded trade in this aspect. The main purpose is to increase investment and remove trade barriers for all member states. In addition, cooperation in the field of customs must also be maximized by reducing customs tariffs, maximizing information exchange and building a “single window” at the borders ports.
China’s efforts to liberate the economy through the OBOR instrument seem ambitious. But, by the joining of 140 countries across the region, sends a positive signal to the successful vision for the Chinese Silk Road. Some scholars predict that China will replace the economic hegemony of the United States in 2028 as well. Even so, the existence of China’s main rival, the United States, is not impossible to become an obstacle. A competition in geoeconomic and geopolitical struggles will certainly continue to occur. This is important to strengthen the position of each international actor in spreading influence in international politics. In connection with this, the United States has also initiated the New Silk Road by consolidating countries in the Asia Pacific region to agree on a “Trans-Pacific Partnership” initiative without involving China. Meanwhile, South Korea and Australia as well as other countries have also conveyed ideas for establishing multilateral cooperation in the region. Another obstacle to China is of course an internal problem, because it will be very hard to find the proper formula for OBOR implementation so that member countries also have a sense of ownership of this initiative.
