While some scholars regard the Chinese initiative as a reaction to the United States’ ‘new Silk Road’
initiative to create a regional market for Afghanistan (Fallon 2015), China’s proposal has its own
economic roots, particularly in the wake of the global financial crisis and recession in the North
Atlantic which had limited China’s potential for continued export-led growth. In 2009, the Asian
Development Bank Institute published a working paper calling for ‘a modern or restored “Silk Road”
to help Asia meet its potential. The article was translated into Chinese and published in a journal
edited by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences