Joining host Dennis McCuistion are Cynthia Watson PhD, Professor of Security at the National War College, Professor Da Hsuan Feng, Former VP for Research U T Dallas and chief advisor to the I Silk Research Institute, and Jay T. Young, Vice President of Marketing Analysis, Trinity Rail. President Xi Jinping of China introduced the Belt and Road Initiative in 2013, and China continues to push it forward. The questions are: What is it, and what are its implications for America?

The Belt and Road Initiative was launched in 2013 as one belt one road, meaning it involves China underwriting billions of dollars of infrastructure investment in countries along the old Silk Road trade routes linking it to Europe.

If Asia and Europe could become a super continent we could have a renaissance once again.

In 1997 China’s GDP was $. 8 trillion US; the United States was $8.9 trillion.

In 2016, the US was at $19 trillion, China at 11.5! Fromm a factor of 10 China closed the gap to 2.

China realized that in order for them to move forward globally they had to have something different. They undertook revitalization, a major mind transformation.

The Silk Road originally ran from the west, Palestine, Europe, Iran, Iraq, all on a trade route that happened organically.

China is a very inward looking country who has realized” We need to go out”.

The road itself is a multi-funded program to construct logistics and transportation infrastructure initially in Central Asia, S, Europe, Latin America. It’s a government-sponsored policy by Pres. Xi Jinping, and the centerpiece of his foreign policy. His goal to expand the economic power of China and its influence throughout the world.

At question is how much would we- in the US be allowed to participate?

Presently the state of China has 83-85% SOE’s- state owned enterprises.

They can control the projects in meaningful ways as a result. There are geo-political implications. Yes it’s about expansion, yet is it also about giving China access to the world in a place the US is not so heavily involved.

Over the past five years, Chinese companies are now running no less than 77 sea terminals in dozens of countries, building high-speed rail corridors across Southeast Asia and potentially even Europe and Russia, funding the construction of highways in Pakistan, bridges in Bangladesh, power plants in too many countries to list here, erecting new cities and/or special economic zones in Sri Lanka, Oman, Myanmar, Malaysia and Abu Dhabi, dug a vast array of pipelines stretching across Central Asia, Russia and Southeast Asia, and established a 35-line network of direct freight trains connecting the manufacturing centers of central and western China with cities in Europe.

In developing this infrastructure, China has shown that they can vastly out compete other companies and governments to get contracts. Their strategy is simple: they overpay. But we have to remember that the economic principles of the BRI are not those that are at play for today, but those of 10, 20, 50 years from now. China is apparently investing in a future world where all roads run through Beijing, and only once that’s set up will talks of profit and loss be applicable.

This episode of McCuistion TV available on the C-Suite Network.