China’s Silk Road presents growing threat to western influence in the Gulf

Western governments’ awareness of the extent and character of the People’s Republic of China’s global ambitions, manifested in President Xi Jinping’s One Belt, One Road Initiative (BRI), has grown sharply in the last 12 months. Not that the ‘Silk Road’ project should be any surprise: the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has been open about its goals, albeit mainly expressed on Chinese language sites.