As One Belt, One Road initiatives are based on China and other countries involved in the projects working closely together and sharing commercial and other benefits, Beijing needs to ensure friendly relations with its neighbors and regional powers.

Designed to attract more visitors to sights, and sites, along the ancient Silk Road which linked China to the countries of Central Asia - and to Rome from about 100 BC - it is particularly hoped to draw more people to China's western provinces.

Like the Chinese title 'Silk Road and the Great Wall,' the Silk Road' symbolizes the country's soft power, while the Great Wall represents the country's hard power. National prosperity must be achieved on the basis of supreme integration of hard and soft power.

China's two-pronged Silk Road initiative, including overland and maritime linkages, has won accolades from leaders across Asia.  China is keener on fostering economic cooperation than building strategic alliances.

Will the next couple of years be enough to reset US-China ties? An important space for future cooperation is Central Asia. Here Russia and some Israelis too are greatly interested in collaborating with China on a new Silk Road. 

President Xi Jinping wason  Tuesday due in Sri Lanka where he will launch construction of a Chinese-backed $1.4 billion port city as he promotes his vision of a "maritime silk road" in the face of growing competition from Japan and India.

China has been quietly working to recreate one of the most legendary trade routes, "the Silk Road", linking Africa to the Middle East (Iraq and Iran) to India, to Indonesia and all culminating in Beijing, while at the same time the reverse leg of the route goes to Kazakhstan, Moscow and ultimately, Germany. The purpose: "to enhance political and economic ties with southeast Asia and beyond."