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THIS WEEK'S SILK ROAD HEADLINES
The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) comprises not only transport routes on land, at sea and through the air, but also a Space Silk Road. In December 2016 the Chinese government published a white paper on China’s space activities which outlines the space dimension of BRI. From 2018, China’s satellite navigation system Beidou will provide basic services to countries along the new Silk Roads. By 2020, China plans to have a network of 35 satellites to provide global services. In relation to this, the Chinese government wants to work with foreign partners to build a Belt and Road Initiative Space Information Corridor. A publication by the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI), warns that a ‘Chinese Space Silk Road would add a new layer of Chinese power and control over much of Eurasia and, unchallenged, would lock out Western companies and ensure Beijing was the sole provider of space services to BRI states. That would ultimately lock in Chinese control of BRI economies.’ [The coming of China’s Space Silk Road].
Meanwhile, China keeps developing the ‘21st Century Maritime Silk Road’. While this is mostly an economic project, it has some noteworthy military aspects. On August 1st, 2017, the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) inaugurated its first overseas logistics support base. This effectively is a naval base located in Djibouti, along the international shipping lane between the Suez Canal and the Indian Ocean. Since January 2009, the Chinese navy has maintained a counter-piracy operation in the Gulf of Aden. The ceremony on August 1st coincided with the 90th anniversary of the PLA, and was attended by military units from both China and Djibouti. The gradual expansion of China’s military presence in the Western Indian Ocean supports the BRI. It provides the Chinese government with the ability to conduct counter-piracy, counter-terrorism and crisis evacuation operations in a strategically important region that includes not just East Africa and the southern Middle East, but also the Mediterranean region. As a recent official Chinese document on maritime cooperation with regard to the BRI explains, China regards bilateral and multilateral cooperation on maritime navigation security an important element of the BRI. In an article published on East Asia Forum, Sam Bateman points at the fact that various other foreign militaries also maintain bases in Djibouti. These include the US military: ‘Nowhere else in the world will US and Chinese operational military forces be located so close to each other. The United States will see the Chinese base as a threat to the security of the highly sensitive surveillance and intelligence collection operations it launches from Camp Lemonnier.’ [China joins the crowd in Djibouti].
Frans-Paul van der Putten
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