The Contradictions of Xi’s Belt and Road Initiative
At The Washington Post, Center for Strategic and International Studies fellow Jonathan E. Hillman...
Feb 16, 2018
At The Washington Post, Center for Strategic and International Studies fellow Jonathan E. Hillman...
May 19, 2017
Beijing’s hosting of the recent Belt and Road Forum, a meeting to promote the ambitious...
May 18, 2016
The Mogao Caves in Gansu’s historic city of Dunhuang are a trove of Buddhist and Silk Road...
May 13, 2016
Three years ago, Xi Jinping began touting China’s plans for a “New Silk Road,” a...
May 8, 2015
At The Diplomat, Shannon Tiezzi looks at President Xi Jinping’s stopover this week in...
Nov 14, 2014
This week’s Economist examines Kazakhstan’s part in building a new trans-Eurasian “Silk Rail.”...
Jul 5, 2014
As the country’s new official map indicates, China’s assertion over its maritime...
Jul 21, 2013
At The New York Times, Keith Bradsher describes the revival of an ancient trade route: Azamat Kulyenov, a 26-year-old train driver, slid the black-knobbed throttle forward, and the 1,800-ton express freight train, nearly a...
Sep 19, 2012
At China File, Kathleen McLaughlin describes China’s women-led mosques which, having weathered varying fortunes since the 17th Century, are now struggling to compete with the growing range of opportunities for young Hui...
Jul 17, 2012
The Huffington Post interviews pipa player Wu Man, whose new CD explores the origins of her instrument, Central Asia. On the CD, Borderlands: Wu Man and the Master Musicians of the Silk Route, she performs with two Uygur...
Aug 9, 2011
Following deadly riots in Xinjiang in 2009, the central government announced a plan to develop a “new Silk Road” to link the isolated, impoverished region to surrounding economies in Central Asia and boost the...
Jul 7, 2011
Author Ma Jian tells The Wall Street Journal which five writers he’d most like to meet: Franz Kafka “To me, Kafka is the most alive of dead writers, no doubt because of his acute understanding of the modern...
Nov 17, 2010
After demolishing much of the historic part of the city, Beijing authorities are now aiming to turn Kashgar into the Shenzhen of the west by making it a Special Economic Zone. From the Los Angeles Times: Chinese officials hope...
Jun 28, 2010
Sam Crane travels the Silk Road in a piece for Kyoto Journal: Today, Dunhuang is a major tourist destination, especially popular with Japanese, Koreans and Southeast Asians. It is a highlight of any contemporary Silk Road...
Apr 30, 2010
The following video was produced from 26,000 still shots taken during a two-month journey through Tibet, Yunnan, Sichuan and Xinjiang by Abram Hodgens. Via Shanghaiist: Silk Road Timelapse: Two Months Across Tibet, Xinjiang,...
Sep 3, 2009
The Times interviews cellist Yo-Yo Ma about his Silk Road Project prior to a concert in London: But in Ma’s mind there’s a much deeper raison d’être for the Silk Road. He is acutely conscious of having personal roots in three...
Jun 12, 2008
In the International Herald Tribune, Howard French travels to Xinjiang to explore the history of China’s western regions: Xinjiang alone comprises one-sixth of the land of the People’s Republic of China, and Tibet, such as...
Dec 15, 2007
Pakistan’s The News reports from Kazakhstan: In the past few years, Chinese fruit, vegetables, TV sets, T-shirts and tires have flooded markets along the old Silk Road in former Soviet Central Asia. Each day, all along the Chinese border, hundreds of tractor-trailers rattle west. These goods are the most visible sign of Beijing’s growing power […]