CONTENTS
Europe
Russia St Petersburg, Moscow, Blagoveshchensk
France Bordeaux, Paris, Dijon, Vannes
Italy Milan, Prato, Florence
Greece Athens
Africa
DR Congo Kolwezi, Lubumbashi, Kipushi
Kenya Nairobi
Xi’an (Shaanxi)
Lanzhou, Dunhuang (Gansu)
Yinchuan (Ningxia)
Chongqing
Kashgar, Taxkorgan (Xinjiang)
Southeast Asia
Thailand Bangkok
Cambodia Phnom Penh, Siem Reap
Indonesia Jakarta, Bandung
Singapore Strait of Malacca
Pakistan Gwadar
Illuminating China’s Global Role
George Yeo
Central / Western Asia
Kazakhstan Almaty, Astana, Aktau
Uzbekistan Tashkent, Samarkand
Iran Qom, Tehran, Qazvin Province, Karaj
Qatar Doha
Saudi Arabia Mecca
Ghana Tema
Algeria
Western Sahara Desert
South America
Peru Lima, Port of Chancay, Callao
Brazil Goi s, S o Paulo, Cravinhos, Rio de Janeiro, Paulista, Paracambi
Eastern China
Shanghai, Wenzhou, Shenzhen, Beijing, Hong Kong
Advancing an Alternative Geoeconomic Vision
Dr Joanna Lei Chien
Archive
Old Silk Road and the Early Explorers
Acknowledgements
Photo Credits
Left: A visitor looks out over Nairobi National Park, a wildlife park close to the centre of Nairobi. In front of her are the tracks of the Mombasa–Nairobi Railway, also known as the Mcearaka Express. This railway was designed, built, and is operated by China Road and Bridge Corporation (CRBC).
In 2025, over 10 million local and international tourists travelled to Xi’an to experience the unique presence of the Terracotta Warriors. Archaeological excavations of the Qin Shi Huang Mausoleum pits began in 1974, when local farmers stumbled across this massive army of clay figures; however, the extent of this huge mausoleum complex is yet to be fully revealed.
A Chinese farming couple, Cui Tongjun (left) and his wife, Zhao Zhenglan, harvest baihe (edible medicinal’ bulbs) on a hillside north of the Yellow River in Gansu.
Left: Workers in Kashgar, Xinjiang, prepare to plant seeds in the cotton fields.
Above: A Uyghur farm worker in Kashgar.
Scenery en route from Kashgar in Xinjiang to Taxkorgan in Tajik Autonomous County (abbreviated as Taxian).
“Despite all the talk of a Chinese slowdown, remember this undisputed fact: since the 2008 global financial crisis, 30% of global economic growth has come from just one country – China.”
— Graham Allison, Professor at Harvard University’s Kennedy School, cited from his book Destined for War (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2018)
Right: Uyghur ladies photograph each other in the desert of Xinjiang. Photo by Boyuan Zhang.
“There is actually no reindustrialisation of America without China. If Apple wanted to move its iPhone production to the United States – if it were possible – they would have to take Chinese-made equipment and machinery with them.”
— Andrew Browne, Pulitzer-Prize-winning journalist and author focused on China and global economics, formerly China editor and columnist at The Wall Street Journal, former executive director of Bloomberg Business Forum
Above: BYD auto plant’s staff canteen in Jizzakh Province, Uzbekistan.
Right: Robots at the BYD auto plant in Jizzakh Province, Uzbekistan.
Soviet-era apartment buildings in Aktau, Kazakhstan.
Above: Congolese village women make garments at a company-sponsored sewing factory at Kipushi mine, southwest of Lubumbashi, DR Congo.
Right: At a depth of 3,770 feet (1,150m) below the surface, miners pose inside the Kipushi mine, Lubumbashi, DR Congo.
Four Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) tankers are under construction at Hudong-Zhonghua Shipyard on Changxing Island, Shanghai. Hudong-Zhonghua is one of China’s largest shipyards, with the capacity for building multiple 24,000 TEU LNG tankers simultaneously, each able to transport 600,350 cubic feet (17,000 cubic metres) of liquefied natural gas.