One Belt, One Road (Obor) and Malaysia: A Long-Term Geopolitical Perspective

Abstract

The Chinese Government has embarked on a new strategy, known as “One Belt, One Road” or OBOR. This paper concentrates on the maritime part of this development policy, which entails heavy infrastructure investments in ports and railroads, but also property developments like satellite cities or condominiums, offered for sale mainly to Chinese citizens. There will be obvious commercial benefits to economies along the Southern Silk Road, but also geo-political effects like increasing political dependency due to Chinese capital investments and acquisition of property rights in ports and condominiums. Regarding these developments, a Malaysian maritime policy is called for to match OBOR and the Indonesian Maritime Fulcrum, as well as ASEAN integration.

Keywords: OBOR; Maritime Policy; Geopolitics; ASEAN Integration; China; Malaysia; port cities; South China Sea:conflict; British Empire;history; maritime Sociology