Messenger
In the Middle East and North Africa, there is increasing interest in collaborating with Chinese enterprises in investment and development of infrastructure. China is also keen to reorient the global economy to place China at the centre of world commerce through its Belt and Road Initiative. The “Belt” is short for the “Silk Road Economic Belt,” the proposed network of overland routes for road and rail transportation. The “Road” is the “21st Century Maritime Silk Road” a network of ports and related installations throughout the world even including the polar Arctic (“the Polar Silk Road”).
Satellite image of a forced labor camp in Xinjiang, China. (Source: International Cyber Policy Centre, Australian Strategic Policy Institute)