China signed memorandums of understanding with Brazil and Peru in 2014 to participate in a rail link between Brazil's Acu Port and Peru's Ilo Port. The project, which has drawn criticism from environmental groups, would be the first major transcontinental infrastructure project to breach the Amazon River and Andes Mountains to link the two coasts of South America. Historically, the Amazon River and Andes Mountains have proved to be impassable, strategically disadvantageous obstacles that have divided Atlantic and Pacific trade routes. The two geographic obstacles are reinforced by the continent's fractured political history originating with the Treaty of Tordesillas. The transcontinental railroad is the first step in connecting South America's coasts, bridging political powers and further facilitating global trade.
As China has increased investment in its domestic rail systems, the country has taken the logical step of funding and encouraging rail projects around the globe, creating a market for its technology and rolling stock. China can sell its rail products abroad and is looking to invest in new production facilities in Latin America to service long-term demand. Like its economic predecessors, China is seeking large-scale overseas infrastructure development projects to keep its construction industries active and to exert some soft-power influence around the globe. Expanding electricity and transportation infrastructure also helps China expand future export markets.
On the strategic level, China's interest in rail, port and other transportation infrastructure projects reflects a deeper concern: the continuity of China's maritime supply routes. China is dependent on maintaining robust global trade, but much of that trade takes place over maritime routes, many of which pass through strategic choke points.
Having laid the groundwork for a series of regional trade routes, China is now expanding abroad and protecting itself by establishing a diverse array of channels. The "belt and road initiative," the revival of both the land-based Silk Road and the "Maritime Silk Road," is a key example of China attempting to protect its future interests through diversification. When fully enacted, the initiative provides a web of routes for the movement of goods in and out of China through Central, Southeast and South Asia. The variety of routes creates a robust trade network and offers China the ability to minimize the length of any single critical maritime leg of trade. By constructing and establishing new land and maritime trade routes, China is not only expediting its trade, but also ensuring the security and viability of the country's influence for years to come.
