K. Yhome is a Research Fellow with the Observer Research Foundation, New Delhi. This article is based on interactions with Chinese government officials and think-tankers during a visit to China as part of a delegation organized by the Institute of Chinese Studies, Delhi from 21-29 April 2016.
Since Xi Jinping announced the ‘One Belt, One Road’ (OBOR) initiative in 2013 this has become another name for China’s diplomacy. Not only is the entire Chinese diplomatic and economic energy being directed towards this one project, the ancient Silk Roads that once connected China with the outside world, are now being presented through art and cultural heritage not only to popularise it within and outside the country, but also as a strategy to counter the growing perception that the OBOR is China’s grandstrategy for dominating the region.