The news is full these days of “historic” train links between China and Europe. The latest to grab the headlines was a China-Europe freight train that set off from eastern China this month. But there was a hitch: the train was destined only for Uzbekistan and did not involve Europe at all. But that didn’t stop Chinese state media from promoting it as the latest addition to a growing network of railways reaching into Europe.
We’ve seen this movie before. “The Silk Road is back in business,” headlines declared this year, when the first direct freight train linking China and the UK arrived in London. It was trumpeted as the “dawn of a new commercial era”, a “new chapter in the history of the centuries-old trading route”, and a “new economic geography”.
For all the talk of “new,” however, the train symbolised something old: brilliant propaganda concealing shaky economics.