Inventing the ‘Maritime Silk Road’

Abstract Although inspired by the nineteenth-century term ‘Silk Road(s)’, phrase ‘Maritime Silk Road’ has its own origins, connotations, and applications. This article examines emergence of latter as a China-centric concept various entanglements since early 1980s, involving People’s Republic China’s (PRC) political bodies, academia, ‘open door’ policy, pursuit World Heritage listings, current ‘Belt Road Initiative’. These entanglements, contends, have resulted in what could be called ecosystem PRC. The analysis this presented reveals not only processes through which narrative on engagement with maritime world been constructed over time, but also association issues national pride, heritage- tradition-making, foreign-policy objectives, claims to territorial sovereignty. As such, must understood that is intimately entwined recent history PRC distinct from antecedent, was used label for overland connectivity.