Стратегия «жемчужной нити» как мера для реализации инициативы китайского морского шелкового пути

MSR as a Tool to Support the Chinese “Great Maritime Wall”

The MSR will complement the EBSR by `linking` Chinese ports with other countries via maritime links, focusing on the use of sea routes and Chinese coastal ports [BDO, 2015, P. 4]2 to connect China with Europe via the South China Sea,3 the Straits of Malacca, Lombok, Sudan and along the north Indian Ocean to the Persian Gulf, Red Sea and Gulf of Aden, encompassing South and Southeast Asia, particularly Sri Lanka. Thus, the MSR will extend from Asia to the Near East, ME, East Africa, the Mediterranean and Europe, China’s largest export market [Clemens, 2015, P. 6].

The two from six OBOR economic corridors are included to MSR:

• China-Indo-China Peninsula Economic Corridor (CICPEC); or China-Southeast Asia Corridors - (three lines Kunming through Vietnam, Laos, Myanmar also connect through Nanning to Guangdong Province);
• Bangladesh-China-India-Myanmar Economic Corridor (BCIM-EC) - (rail construction, road construction, industrial parks) [Harutyunyan, 2017b, P. 76-86].

The Maritime Silk Road will begin:

• From Quanzhou in Fujian province and also hit other southern Chinese ports - Guangzhou (Guangdong province), Beihai (Guangxi) and Haikou (Hainan) before heading south to the Malacca Strait;
• From Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia) the MSR heads to Kolkata (India) then crosses the rest of the Indian Ocean to Nairobi (Kenya);
• From Nairobi goes north around the Horn of Africa and moves through the Red Sea into the Mediterranean, with a stop in Athens (Greece) before meeting the land-based EBSR in Venice (Italy) [Brugier, 2014, P. 1-2; Tiezzi, 2014].

MSR targets key littoral states along major Indian Ocean trade arteries for the construction of two mega-projects - the land-based CPEC5 and the sea-based BCIM-EC, which, with large investments from China, can fundamentally change the political and economic landscape of the Indian Ocean Region (IOR) [Zhou, 2014], one of the most strategically significant in a world which has become a friction point for tension between the United States (U.S.), China and India, and where China and India are fighting for superiority over sea lines. Such tension intensifies as each state takes measures to counter the others and project dominance within the `region` [Abeyagoonasekera, 2019, P. 48].

MSR will allow China to enter the Pacific Ocean, "control the South China Sea in the south" and enter the Indian Ocean from the South China Seas through the Strait of Malacca, breaking through the U.S. environment [Beauchamp-Mustafaga, 2015, P. 3]. Thus, putting the South China Sea in its sphere of influence may lead to China’s transition from geopolitical vulnerability to a strong position, effectively supporting the “Great Maritime Wall”, and providing China with unhindered `access` to the Indian and Pacific Oceans [Bouvin, 2019].

The “Choke Points” of the Indian Ocean as the Most Strategically Significant in the World

In 21st century the Indian Ocean will have more significance; its waters cover an approximated 73.5 million square km, combining half the world’s latitudes and seven of its zones, along with 48 independent seashores and island countries including of 2.6 billion people which is world’s 39% of population [Khan, Khalid, 2018, P. 247-248].