FROM OUR CORRESPONDENTEURASIA


While US President Donald Trump is telling the world that he will tear up trade agreements, China is preparing extensive plans and pacts for trade in Europe, Asia and even South America.


Building links with Europe: Chinese President Xi Jinping arrives at Belgrade’s Nikola Tesla International Airport in Serbia last year.


China cultivates global trade networks


Sam Whelan, our regional correspondent in


SOUTHEAST ASIA


Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Lima, Peru. Political analyst Pepe Escobar adroitly


D


dubbed the meeting “Marco Polo in reverse”. And you can see why – China is carefully executing its New Silk Road vision of geo-economic integration and free-flowing trade connectivity between Europe, Central Asia and the Asia-Pacific – more conveniently named Eurasia. In Sardinia, Chinese tech-giant Huawei


has invested USD20 million in an industrial park and European headquarters, while local goat cheese producer Alimenta exports 95 percent of its powdered sheep milk for baby formula milk powder in China. The Chinese are rumoured to be eyeing


the purchase of the Port of Cagliari –which is not too far-fetched, considering shipping conglomerate China Cosco’s USD552million


www.heavyliftpfi.com


ays after Donald Trump’s US election triumph, Chinese President Xi Jinping was on his way to Sardinia, Italy. A quick, yet noteworthy detour enroute to the


majority stake investment in the Greek port of Piraeus. Later at the APEC summit in Lima, talk


centred on Trump’s shock victory and the fate of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). Trump campaigned passionately against


ratifying the TPP and is likely to usher in a new period of American protectionism, should he follow through on his campaign rhetoric. Thus, barring a dramatic policy reversal by the new US president, for all intents and purposes the TPP is finished.


China is carefully executing its New Silk Road vision of geo- economic integration and free- flowing trade connectivity between Europe, Central Asia and the Asia-Pacific – more conveniently named Eurasia.


What then, if anything, will replace it? Enter Xi and the Regional


Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP). Originally conceived at a 2012 ASEAN summit in Cambodia, RCEP includes the ten ASEAN nations plus China, Japan, South Korea, India, Australia and New Zealand. Covering 46 percent of the world’s population, 40 percent of world trade, and a combined GDP of USD17 trillion, it was perceived as a Chinese-led rival to the US-dominated TPP.


Reviving RCEP RCEP struggled to gain traction and remained in the shadows as the TPP advanced quickly under US leadership. But in Lima, with TPP off the table as the USA seemingly takes a backseat on multinational trade pacts, Xi grasped the opportunity to breathe new life into the RCEP treaty. Indeed, both Peru and Chile are


reportedly now interested in joining RCEP, which the APEC nations described as being one potential path to a broader Free Trade Area of the Asia-Pacific (FTAAP). Meanwhile, RCEP and the Asia-Pacific is


just the tip of the iceberg in China’s push for regional trade integration. The New Silk Road, more commonly referred to as China’s One Belt, One Road (OBOR) policy, has been widely publicised for its


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