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Chinese Belt and Road Initiative Relies on Euphemistic Messaging, Soft Power Posturing

By Eric Englert

WASHINGTON—China, in its quest to create a modern version of Marco Polo’s fabled Silk Road, is developing a massive Eurasian infrastructure project that seeks to unite Eurasian transportation and commerce from Beijing to Lisbon.

As China pursues the trillion dollar project, known as the Belt and Road Initiative, analysts say the Chinese government is balancing its investment and its desire for political influence with a measured advertising plan that avoids overtly political overtones while still honoring President Xi Jinping’s grand vision of Chinese greatness.

(Keep reading for the rest of this article and an interview with the reporter, Eric Englert.)

Sixty-eight Asian and European countries stand to benefit from the Belt and Road Initiative, which, among other things, will help repair decaying roads and transportation systems, both physical and digital. Chinese officials are downplaying the likely result of significantly increased influence worldwide.

Chinese discussion of the project parses words to avoid terms that could sound overbearing or controlling for the countries receiving their largesse, said Nadege Rolland of the National Bureau of Asian Research.

“The decision was made not to use the English word ‘strategy’, [for instance], and to replace it with ‘initiative,’” Rolland said at a conference Wednesday at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. “China does not want to convey its true geopolitical motivation--being a great power in Eurasia,” he said. “From China’s eastern shores to Portugal, to Eastern Africa, this is China’s great dream.”

An interconnected Eurasia is nothing new. In the 1960s the United Nations promoted a Eurasian continent “whole and free”, in the spirit of liberal democratic values, that would bring the various social and political societies together. However, China’s vision is quite the opposite of that, Rolland said, even though it uses marketing phrases like “the community of common destiny” to try to promote a Chinese-lead Eurasia similarly unified in its cultural and political ends.

The effort, though, relies as much on soft power and bumper sticker phrases as on financial resources and economic influence in its quest toward bringing and keeping countries into its fold.

The initiative is simultaneously both the vision and the manifestation of cultural, political, and economic hegemony in Eurasia, so China is careful about the language, the vehicle of that expression of power, said Rolland.

Rolland, taking cues from her book-length study of the subject, cautioned that for China, words are chosen not for their evocation of political realities, but for their deliberately effusive messages.

“The official soft power narrative wants to us to focus only on the economic development for the entire region, but there are really a lot of other dimensions,” Rolland said.

The idea of the Eurasian continent being whole and free is not in the interest of China. The ideology behind it is not the classical liberal democratic, Western ideology of the 1960s, but rather one that will help promote Chinese nationalization.

In some countries of the former Soviet Union, for instance, where authoritarian regimes hold onto power, the road has, in part, been sold as a way for those governments to retain their sovereignty through economic partnership, while in reality they are slowly giving it up to serve larger Chinese ends.

“It will bring that money,” Rolland said. “Using that wealth will help China attract more foreigners and power and influence. They do not have the military capabilities to change things on the ground now. They want more influence from these investments.”

Chinese State-Owned Enterprises or SOEs, which get the bulk of the financing, will provide the Communist Party the leverage it needs to continue its unfettered control over Chinese society for the long term, said Matthew P. Goodman, senior advisor for Asian economics at CSIS. Numerous infrastructure projects are being financed both by Chinese SOEs and large, international banks dedicated to the project, like the Asia Infrastructure Bank, or AIB.

Photo at top: Nadege Rolland of the National Bureau of Asian Research and Matthew P. Goodman, senior advisor for Asian economics at CSIS speak at a conference on the Belt and Road Initiative. (Photo by Eric Englert / Medill)

Q&A with the Reporter

Eric Englert is a reporter at the Medill News Service. Enrolled in the Business, Money and Markets specialization, he transitioned into journalism after eleven years of teaching at high school and college levels. Eric has also worked as an intern reporter at Bloomberg in Chicago. He tells us about his experience in the Washington, D.C. program this summer, sharing his tips for other student reporters covering Congress. 

Q: What was the first congressional hearing you went to? What were your challenges reporting on that for the first time?

A: I went to a hearing of the education committee about freedom of speech on college campuses. It was challenging because I needed to parse all of the irrelevant details that often are a large part of testimony and congressional rhetoric and cut to the essence of what is important.

Q: How was your experience reporting at Bloomberg different from covering hearings?

A: Bloomberg was more about managing the constant stream of data that came in from the terminal whereas at a hearing, you must listen very carefully and be able to make snap judgments about the veracity of information.

Q: What are the similarities and differences in covering finance and politics?

A: Politics is just as challenging, but involves different processes. Being able to understand and judge political motivations is very important. In business reporting, there is more of a focus on looking over budgetary documents.

Q: What's the advice you've found most helpful so far in your time at D.C.?

A: The best advice is to cut to the chase, be able to quickly sift through the often meaningless detail and get to the most important things. You should always imagine that you are having a conversation with your mother about the topic. What would you tell her about it? I think both Ellen [Shearer] and Peter [Eisner] gave me that advice.

Q: What's been your favorite story so far? Tell us a little bit about your reporting process for it. What do you like about the story?

A: I have enjoyed reporting about the Foot and Mouth disease enterprise story. I interviewed multiple sources, including the Kansas State Agriculture Secretary and numerous university and industry sources. I let my interest in the topic carry it forward.

(Eric’s story on the Foot and Mouth disease was published on the U.S. News & World Report website. Read it here.)

Q: What's been the best part of the D.C. program so far?

A: I have enjoyed the staff members. They are experts at what they do and have great student rapport and advice for making writing better.

Q: What are your plans after this summer?

A: I will look for a job. I have been interviewing with a lot of different places thus far.

Good luck with the rest of your summer, Eric! 

For more information about what Medill News Service reporters are doing, be sure to check out MedillDC.net and follow us on Twitter at @medillonthehill!