China’s Maritime Silk Road Initiative: Strategic and Economic Implications for East Africa

China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), also known as yidaiyilu or One Belt One Road, is an ambitious project launched by the Chinese President Xi Jinping in late 2013 to build connectivity with over 60 countries and 4.4 billion people across the continents of Asia, Africa, and Europe through transnational infrastructural programs (Verlare and van der Putten, 2015). Facing rising domestic labor cost, a sluggish economy, and industrial overcapacity in China, and increasing economic protectionism in western countries, the BRI provides a good opportunity for China to integrate its bilateral and multilateral engagements into a broader framework of international trade, financial, investment, infrastructure, and policy cooperation. According to the official paper put out by China’s National Development and Reform Commission, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and Ministry of Commerce in March 2015, Vision and Actions on Jointly Building Silk Road Economic Belt and 21st-Century Maritime Silk Road, BRI consists of two major initiatives: Silk Road Economic Belt (SREB) and 21st Century Maritime Silk Road (MSR). While the SREB links Central Asia, Russia, and Europe on land with China’s western hinterland, the MSR connects China’s coast with Southeast Asia, South Asia, East Africa, and the Mediterranean Sea. East Africa is therefore at the heart of this MSR project.