Here is the final article in our series of posts from CUNY Professor Tansen Sen on India China relations in the aftermath of the high-level visits between Xi and Modi. In this piece in Yale Global Online, professor Sen discusses some of the problems within historical narratives about India and China and their policy implications today.
The romantic concept of a historic Silk Road by which camel caravans wend among the mountains and deserts of Central Asia is back in the news. So is talk on reestablishing the maritime networks by which the Chinese Admiral Zheng He steered his naval armada across the Indian Ocean seven times. China’s leaders promote the ancient trade routes, most recently during the Chinese President Xi Jinping’s visits to countries in Central and South Asia, to emphasize the nation’s historic role as a harbinger of peace and prosperity.
One minor problem in China’s history-based campaign – the history is distorted.
In September 2013, less than a year after assuming the position of general secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, Xi launched new foreign policy initiative known as the “Silk Road Economic Belt.” In an address at Kazakhstan’s Nazarbayev University, calling for cooperation and development of the Eurasian region through this new Silk Road initiative, Xi presented five specific goals: strengthening of economic collaboration, improvement of road connectivity, promotion of trade and investment, facilitation of currency conversion, and bolstering of people-to-people exchanges.
You can read the rest of Professor Sen’s article by clicking here.