Li Xin

(Senior Fellow, Institute for World Economic Studies)

Author

Li Xin is Senior Fellow of the Institute for World Economic Studies, and Director of the Center for Russian and Central Asia Studies of the Shanghai Institutes for International Studies. His academic interest includes the world economy, economics of transition, Eurasian integration and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, and the politics and economies of Russian and Central Asia. Li is an author of over 150 articles and 10 books on Russia published in Chinese, Russian and English, including The Transition to a Market Economy: Russia and China (2002), and A Study of the Transformation of the Economy (2007). Li is a permanent member of the Baltic Forum, the Valdai Discussion Club, and the World Public Forum "Dialogue of Civilizations." He is an editorial board member of the Chinese journals such as Russian, East European & Central Asian Studies, and the Academic Journal of Russian Studies, as well as the Russian Vestnik SPbSU Series, Spatial Economics, and Problems of the Modern Economy sponsored by Eurasian Economic Community. Mr. Li is a recipient of the State Council special allowance, has been honored by the Shanghai Municipal Government, and is a member of the Economic Department of the Central Committee of the China Democratic National Construction Association.

Abstract

The Silk Road Economic Belt focuses on the development and opening up of western China, the 21st century Maritime Silk Road eyes further opening up of the coastal areas in southeastern China to the Asia Pacific region, and the strategy of reviving northeastern China is effectively connected with Russia's development of the eastern Siberia region and the strategy in the far East. The Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st century Maritime Silk Road constitute the new pattern in China's all-round opening up and the new framework for the nation's neighboring diplomacy, marking an essential change in China's opening up strategy. In its nature, the strategy changes from attracting foreign investment to going global and better combines the two, which will boost the reform through opening up; in its scope, the strategy aims at developing western China and implementing the opening-to-the-west strategy; in its depth, the strategy goes in accordance with the trend of regional economic integration and accelerates the implementation of free trade zone strategy to realize free flow of goods, capital and labor. The Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st century Maritime Silk Road are in the first place a comprehensive interconnected Eurasia traffic network comprising railway, road, airspace, sea, oil and gas pipeline, power transmission line and communication network. It is distinguished from the new Silk Road strategies proposed by the United States, Europe and Russia for its openness and inclusiveness. Connecting the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st century Maritime Silk Road with Russia's Trans-Eurasian Development Belt will advance the economic integration of Europe and Asia, help co-build the Eurasia market and lead European and Asian countries to join in the new pattern of Eurasian economic integration, and thus exert significant impact on the contemporary world economic landscape and promote the formation of a new global political and economic order.