China talks of building a “digital Silk Road”
An ancient Silk Road city wants to cash in
CHINA’S vague but much-vaunted Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) has been providing buzzword fodder for government leaders and official sloganeers since 2013, when the country launched the scheme to extend its political and economic influence abroad by investing in infrastructure and other big projects. The “belt” refers to an overland push across Eurasia and the “road” to a maritime route to South Asia and beyond. But in recent months some new rhetoric (consistent in its challenging use of metaphor) has been promoting a virtual dimension: a “digital Silk Road”.
This article appeared in the China section of the print edition under the headline “A web of silk”
From the June 2nd 2018 edition
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