Abstract:The Ancient Maritime Silk Road was a complex and multi-cultural trade network which stretched across three continents. This decentralized trade network offered a well-functioning economic system,extending far into inland,connecting the domestic markets and production networks,shaping the “world economy” system in the Indian Ocean region. However,after the Western colonizers showed up in the Indian Ocean,they completely changed the nature of the Maritime Silk Road,making this network a permission-required waterways and a tool for colonial economic system. Regions of Maritime Silk Road were transformed into the peripheral region of the European economy. Therefore,one of the main targets for Maritime Silk Road is the collective revival of these regions. This revival will surely be rooted in the changes of production systems and production networks. In recent decades,marginalized Asian countries had once gradually integrated into the global value chain due to the Asian production networks. However,this process was imbalanced and of obvious vulnerability. Many countries and regions have yet to be incorporated into a genuine production network. Out of the need of further improving and expanding the Asian production network,a platform which could enable marginalized countries and regions to rise more quickly in trade and production systems is increasingly needed. In this sense,“21st Century Maritime Silk Road” can also be regarded as an effort to reshape the Asian production networks.In order to build the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road,China’s strategic goals also should be adjusted accordingly. The main purpose of this initiative is to share the fruits of growth of China with its neighboring countries. Thus the trend that China becomes the supplier of regional public goods and let neighboring countries to be the “free rider” is taken for granted. China should always adhere to the principle of “pluralism,diversity,openness” and China will never become the new overlord of the Maritime Silk Road. Maritime Silk Road was not,and will be never controlled by any particular country. It will always belong to a more fair and rational international economic order.
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