2018 年 21 巻 p. 24-33
Beijing’s Belt and Road initiative aims to promote economic cooperation and boosts China’s influence along land and sea corridors involving dozens of countries in Asia and beyond. A key piece in the “One Belt, One Road” plan is a $46-billion infrastructure development program called the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor that connects Kashgar in China’s northwestern territory of Xinjiang with the Pakistani port of Gwadar. Developing the fishing town of Gwadar into an economic hub is part of Beijing’s plan to forge new trade routes. But skeptics have described Beijing’s plan as a plot to tie small and fragile countries on China’s periphery to its economy through chains of debt. Malaysia has dramatically reset its foreign policy and revised its attitude to infrastructure projects.