China lança rotas alternativas para o comércio, esvaziando a hegemonia dos EUA nos mares.
"The Silk Road, no longer just a concept in history books, has evolved into a story of modern logistics and Sino-European cooperation," Yang Jiechi, China's top diplomat, told a conference this month. The New Silk Road Economic Belt - from China across Central Asia and Russia to Europe - and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road - through the Malacca Strait to India, the Middle East and East Africa - have become the centrepiece of China's economic diplomacy. The belt and the road, as China's diplomats refer to them, are the focus of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Beijing. They aim to cement China's emerging role at the heart of the 21st century economy. China's President Xi Jinping has pledged $40 billion to a new Silk Road fund for investing in infrastructure, resources and industrial and financial cooperation across Asia.
Chinese diplomats have also been busy promoting a new Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, promising to provide half of its $50 billion start-up capital, to help build ports, roads, power projects and other desperately needed infrastructure across the region. The Silk Road fund and Asia Infrastructure Investment Bank pose a direct challenge to the traditional primacy of U.S.-dominated financial and trade institutions in the region, including the International Monetary Fund, World Bank and Asian Development Bank, all of which were set up following the U.S. victory in World War Two. U.S. diplomats have been manoeuvring furiously to limit the impact of China's economic diplomacy. In the past month, Australia and South Korea both declined to join the new Infrastructure Investment Bank following intense lobbying from officials in Washington, which went all the way up to Secretary of State John Kerry and President Barack Obama himself.
