21st Century Maritime Silk Road

[2][3][4] The maritime silk road essentially runs through the Indo-Pacific and then the Indo-Mediterranean from the Chinese coast to the south via Hai Phong to Jakarta, Singapore and Kuala Lumpur through the Strait of Malacca then via Colombo in Sri Lanka towards the southern tip of India via Malé, to the East African Mombasa, from there to Djibouti, then through the Red Sea via the Suez Canal to the Mediterranean, then via Haifa, Istanbul and Athens to the Upper Adriatic region to the northern Italian hub of Trieste with its international free port and its rail connections to Central Europe and the North Sea.

The Maritime Silk Road initiative was first proposed by Chinese leader Xi Jinping during a speech to the Indonesian Parliament in October 2013.

China has accelerated its drive to draw Africa into the MSR with the speedy construction of a modern standard-gauge rail link between Nairobi and Mombasa.

Although the routes encompassed in the MSR will be copious if the initiative comes to fruition, to date there has not been ample official information released concerning specific ports.

Between 2015 and 2022, China has leased ownership over the following ports:[8] In the 2018 Xinhua-Baltic International Shipping Centre Development Index Report,[9] the China Economic Information Service cites the following as major routes for the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road: Qinzhou – Yangpu – Zhanjiang – Gaolan Port – Yantian – Nansha – Ho Chi Minh City (Vietnam) – Singapore – Yangon (Myanmar) – Palawan (Philippines) – Singapore – Qinzhou.

The Maritime Silk Road has also an important role in the connection between East Africa and the Mediterranean region through the Suez Canal.

This applies, for example, to the expansion of the Belgrade-Budapest railway line, the Brenner Base Tunnel and the connections on the Adriatic-Baltic and Adriatic-North Sea axes.

[21] Qingdao – Shanghai – Ningbo – Kaohsiung – Hong Kong – Yantian – Singapore – Piraeus (Greece) – Trieste (Italy) – La Spezia (Italy) – Genoa (Italy) – Fos-sur-Mer (France) – Valencia (Spain) – Piraeus (Greece) – Jeddah (Saudi Arabia) – Colombo (Sri Lanka) – Singapore – Hong Kong There exist a number of unresolved territorial disputes in the South China Sea between China and ASEAN countries such as Brunei, Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines, and Vietnam.

It has been stated that China's subnational actors – such as multinational corporations, provinces, cities, and towns – have a tendency to strongly prioritize their own interests above those of the nation and participate in government initiatives primarily to satisfy their own objectives.