The New Silk Road, Part 1: From China to Pakistan | DW Documentary

The New Silk Road is a mammoth project intended to connect China with the West. It's a gigantic infrastructure project that Beijing says will benefit everyone. But this two-part documentary shows China’s predominant self-interest and geopolitical ambitions.

The old Silk Road is a legend, whereas the New Silk Road is a real megaproject. China wants to reconnect the world though a network of roads, railways, ports and airports between Asia and Europe. A team of reporters travels by sea and land along the New Silk Road and shows how China, with the largest investment program in history, is expanding its influence worldwide. Their journey begins in Shenzhen on the Pearl River Delta. This is where China's legendary rise to an economic superpower began 40 years ago. The private market economy experiment unleashed forces that allowed Shenzhen to grow into a mega-metropolis.
The team takes a container ship towards Southeast Asia. Its first stop is the port city of Sihanoukville in Cambodia. A joke is making the rounds there these days: you can now travel to China without a passport and without leaving your own country. Sihanoukville is now almost part of China itself! The Chinese have financed practically everything built here in the recent past: the extension of the port, new roads, bridges and factories. Many Cambodians are unhappy and feel like losers in the boom. Rising prices and rents are making the poor even poorer. But for land and house owners, on the other hand, it’s a bonanza.
In Myanmar, resistance is already growing. Locals in Kachin have successfully blocked a new dam project, asking how the Chinese could produce energy for their own country whilst leaving the locals themselves without electricity? The Myanmar government pulled the emergency brake and the huge Chinese dam project did not get beyond the first concrete piers in the river.
The Karakorum Highway from Kashgar in China across the Roof of the World to Islamabad in Pakistan is one of the most difficult and dangerous roads in this breathtaking mountain world. Once the road is finished, it often disintegrates again, and rock falls and landslides block the highway as if the Karakorum Mountains are trying to deny China strategic access to the Arabian Sea. The first part of the report ends in Islamabad.

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[yuhao]

That line of poem actually means “when traveling west of YANG pass, you will see no more old friends”. It is written to a friend of the poet saying farewell.

[JJJJ-gluf]

Dunhuang is a very interesting place. I've been there twice and really enjoyed it. The secret is to avoid the massive crowds who hang around the dunes at the entrance to that park, and just enter for free a few hundred metres either side of the gate. If you veer to the right of the gate you'll find yourself in a graveyard with very interesting tombs, and you can walk around there for hours looking.... I recommend an overnight trip to the desert where you will see stars like you'll never see anywhere else in China. Sitting under the night sky by a fire is really an awesome experience, and there will be nobody around (most of the Chinese tourists won't even consider this option). The best part is you see the dunes in all their

[sablefilms]

This doc emphasizes the bad impact of China's investment, but from a business point of view, it makes a sound investment. At the same time, the doc does not mention that the West would not have invested in these countries and that these countries would not be able to withstand the financial and economic burden insisted by IMF.

[piehound]

Thank you DW Documentary for a fascinating look at this massive project. Vielen Dank.

[hunteric]

Wang Wei’s poem is mistranslated. He was signing that his friend is leaving and that friend does not have old pals out there. Please don’t use google translate when trying to translate Chinese poems.

[kenbarney]

I do find it interesting that the germans of all people would say they have never seen an airport like this before considering the vacant berlin airport

[kathleenozbek]

the construction work in Pakistani are mostly local workers in this documentary. So how long DW wants to lie to people?

[akbarbinhassanbinaliwasti]

Silk Routes: There were at least 5 different routes that are known as Silk Routes: At least three were most used. Northern China, via Mongolia, Central via Central Asia and Southern via India. The two sub routes were split in Central. Most ended at Anatolia, Turkey. China, then, was the most technically advanced country

[Majorohminus]

Sounds like you should do a documentary like this one about the loans given out by the IMF and World Bank. Would be great as a comparison.

[zsarimaxim]

Development is bad, the old colonial power taking resources without bringing development is much better.

[Khan-wfmi]

What a propaganda piece against the One Belt One Road (OBOR) and China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC). I can only talk about the CPEC part as that is what I personally know about. But start to finish that whole section was BS. The locals are more than happy that the highways China built for CPEC will bring thousands more tourists to their areas, which creates wealth for the locals. No one stops westerners from filming on the khunjrab pass. Anyone can visit the Khunjrab Pass and film there, YouTube is filled with their videos (including westerners). The highway up to the Khunjrab pass is excellent! the landslide they were showing was not a regular landlisde but a massive earthquake that happened in 2005 which created the Attabad lake, and this earthquake happened before the CPEC route to Khunjrab Pass was made.

The reason he doesn't see a lot of trade activity on the route is because the whole CPEC trade route is under construction, including routes going through the Punjab and Baluchistan, along-with new train lines to transport cargo. The related industry that is to be set up is in the implementation phases. He talks as if the trade route is complete yet no one is using it. These CPEC routes are making the most inaccessible parts of Pakistan accessible not just to tourists but traders year round. Most of Pakistan's indebtedness is to western lenders, not Chinese. Time for the western world to stop with its BS and let other countries prosper.

[jwh]

2:16 Dunhuang (China)
7:41 Cambodia
13:22 Kashgar (China)
18:27 Myanmar
25:42 Sri Lanka
32:12 Pakistan

[nehcooahnait]

40:06 the engineer was literally bragging about how hardworking they are and their work ethics... but the voice Dub seemed to understand it as some sort of complaint... man I know the work ethics sound bad but don’t over-interpret it to serve your own good.

[yedilfana]

These days enjoying all DW's Documentaries while Quarantining my slef DW

[airspun]

This video reminds me of what is happening in the Philippines 🇵🇭

[syedshafiq]

Would DW do a documentary on the ‘ Economic hit men ‘ of the WB-IMF gang?

[virtuous]

should create documentaries on history of all european massacres on foreign soil

[chetannarve]

Long live China 🇨🇳 and Pakistan 🇵🇰
Respect for building the most difficult highway
With love from ordinary Indian 🇮🇳

[potato]

30:11
Sri Lanka : we have the world's emptiest international airport
North Koreans in Pyongyang : hold my beer

[ЕвгенийПетров-вп]

That's what is called a documentary, people! It was a pleasure to watch it.