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INS Lecture 7: China's Maritime Silk Road

2026-04-15 · 15:18 UTC ·U.S. Naval War College ·2 min read

Brief

Andrew R. Wilson delivered a lecture (U.S. Naval War College, 2026-04-15) examining the Maritime Silk Road, the seaborne arm of Xi Jinping’s 2013 Belt and Road Initiative. In this presentation Wilson mapped the program’s port and infrastructure investments across Southeast Asia, the Indian Ocean, the Middle East and the Mediterranean and explained why U.S. policymakers worry these assets could support Chinese naval reach. He emphasized that the Maritime Silk Road is neither purely top-down nor purely export-driven: domestic Chinese politics, multiple domestic stakeholders and the priorities of partner states iteratively shape outcomes. Wilson also highlighted regional consequences—European pushback, South Asian tensions, Arctic ties with Russia, and Latin American dependencies—concluding the BRI mixes centralized strategy with chaotic, multilevel implementation that yields both development gains and debt/sovereignty risks.

Why it matters

The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) was launched in 2013 by President Xi Jinping; its Maritime Silk Road component invests in ports across Southeast Asia, the Indian Ocean, the Middle East and the Mediterranean, raising U.S. concern that such facilities could enable Chinese naval power projection.

Key details

  • Professor Andrew R. Wilson frames the Maritime Silk Road as both an expression of Chinese domestic politics and economics and an iterative, negotiated process—partner countries actively reshape projects to meet their own developmental and political objectives.
  • Wilson identifies growing regional backlash: increasing disenchantment with BRI projects in Europe, heightened geopolitical tensions in South Asia, Arctic initiatives that may deepen Beijing–Moscow economic and strategic ties, and Latin American projects that risk creating dependencies and weakening U.S. influence.
  • The BRI combines centralized strategic aims with a chaotic, multilevel implementation: it carries tangible developmental benefits but also significant debt and dependency risks; the lecture was delivered by Dr. Andrew R. Wilson (John A. van Beuren Chair, Ph.D., Harvard) on 2026-04-15.
Source evidence

Launched in 2013, the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) is Chinese President Xi Jinping’s signature project to influence the global economic order and potentially remake the political balance of power. This talk examines the seaward dimensions of the BRI--the Maritime Silk Road. The scale and complexity of the Maritime Silk Road’s projects have generated both praise and condemnation. From a U.S. perspective, there is significant concern that BRI investments in port facilities across Southeast Asia, the Indian Ocean, the Middle East and even as far as the Mediterranean, are about more than economics, it is about the ability of the Chinese Navy to project power and influence along sea lines previously dominated by the United States and its allies.

Professor Wilson will unravel some of the mystery surrounding the Maritime Silk Road and show that the project is both a manifestation of Chinese internal politics, economics, and the ways China sees its role in the world; as well as an iterative process whereby the BRI is significantly shaped by the countries that partner with China. Those countries play significant roles in getting the BRI to work for their own developmental and political objectives. We will also explore the growing disenchantment with the BRI in Europe, heightened geo-political tensions surrounding it in South Asia, the concern that Chinese projects in the Arctic will strengthen Beijing’s economic and strategic ties with Moscow, and the prospect that BRI projects in Latin America are creating regional dependencies and undermining the US position in the Western Hemisphere.

Both the BRI and its Maritime Silk Road component defy simple description. In one sense they are part of a centralized and coordinated effort to enhance China’s power and presence globally. At the same time, the BRI is a chaotic multiplayer, multilevel game played both domestically and internationally. It carries both risks of debt and dependency as well as significant developmental rewards for China and its partners. As such, the Maritime Silk Road is both reflective of China’s internal fractions and its multiple domestic stakeholders and is shaped by the complex and diverse projects that this emerging superpower is pursuing in an intricate global landscape. This talk should prove valuable to anyone eager to understand the BRI in all its complexity and diversity, especially in the maritime domain.

Lecturer:

Dr. Andrew R. Wilson is the John A. van Beuren Chair of Asia-Pacific Studies and Professor of Strategy & Policy at the United States Naval War College. Wilson earned a Ph.D. in History and East Asian Languages from Harvard University with a specialization in the history of Pre-Modern and Modern China.

He has published numerous books and articles on Chinese military history, the Chinese diaspora, and the history of China and maritime Asia. Professor Wilson’s research interests are not limited to history. He has also written on Chinese strategic culture, contemporary Asian security, Chinese politics, and China’s military modernization. In addition, he is a student of strategic theory and formerly served as the Naval War College’s Philip A. Crowl Professor of Comparative Strategy.

Wilson has spoken at numerous military colleges and civilian universities across the United States and around the world, and his current project is editing a multi-author volume entitled Traversing the Belt and Road.

Channel: U.S. Naval War College
Published: 2026-04-15
Video URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8FfNMJ8yfEQ