Geography Lesson Plan: Examining China's New Silk Road

The question of space - both internal and external - is a central theme constituting the rise of China. And the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) is one of the central projects encapsulating the outward ambitions to expand the power and influence of the Chinese central government. The BRI has indeed come to increasingly shape the political and economic trajectories of the world, dividing, for example, European countries from one another on contentious decisions on whether to take action against China for aggressive moves in the South China Sea and on human rights.

Employing multimedia content - newspaper articles and visualizations from the Guardian, photographs from the Atlantic, and video documentaries from the BBC, VICE News, and the Economist - this lesson aims to familiarize students with various aspects of the New Silk Road. This includes engagement with the scope and purpose of the initiative, the content of the projects that fall under its broad umbrella, and the locations of different "stops" and the dynamics therein. The lesson also is targeted toward enabling students to engage with the BRI in a critical manner, analyzing both potential benefits and harmful effects and the different motives behind the scheme.

Students learn about the global economic, political, and social connectivity between China and various cities/countries that the BRI has brought to the foreground and how different societies and governments are responding to these endeavors. Students also analyze how Europe has been impacted by the BRI. I use the lesson with juniors in my high school Human and Regional Geography course and it takes around 140 minutes over two different class sessions. There is also a homework assignment. Worksheets for the lesson can be downloaded here and here.

Photo by Denys Nevozhai on Unsplash

Part One - 15-20 minutes

For pre-discussion, it would be beneficial to check students' familiarity with the Old Silk Road and its implications. The Atlantic hosts an excellent photo trip through the Old Silk Road that the class may wish to examine. If students have not previously covered this topic, the teacher may also wish to incorporate this TedEd video. After discussing the Old Silk Road, the teacher may then elicit students' pre-knowledge of China's Belt and Road Initiative or New Silk Road. Students may also develop hypotheses on why China is carrying out a large-scale global infrastructure development project. A couple illustrations can be shown from this Guardian article. For levity, the teacher may also wish to play the following BRI children's song created for promotional purposes by the Chinese government.

Part Two - 30 minutes

As an introduction to the BRI, students read the article - "What is China's Belt and Road Initiative?" - from The Guardian. To facilitate student engagement and understanding, the teacher should provide this accompanying worksheet and task students with taking notes.

During subsequent discussion, it would be beneficial to check student understanding of some of the complex terms mentioned in the article, including the notion of "debt-trap diplomacy" and the "Marshall Plan".

The teacher may also wish to pose some additional questions:

Why are countries turning to China for loans to support infrastructure and not to other options?

In addition to those mentioned in the article, what are some other concessions that could be made to China in the case of loan default?

In what ways does the BRI correspond to or differ from other practices you've heard of in China?

In what ways is the BRI similar to/different from other contemporary and historical phenomena that you have heard about in the world?

These questions should pave the way for some discussion on how financial institutions make decisions on lending within different risk environments and the underlying purpose behind the Chinese loans in terms of gaining political and economic concessions from countries. It would also be beneficial to compare/contrast the Marshall Plan - based on grants/assistance - approach with the BRI.

Part Three - 40 minutes

In part three, students further explore the New Silk Road through a BBC Our World documentary ("China New Silk Road") that takes the viewer on a journey through some of the "stops" of the belt of the initiative. An accompanying worksheet can be downloaded here.

After viewing, the teacher should review the different components of the New Silk Road, including potential benefits and negative implications, and the local reactions to the initiative.

For students to consider: What types of projects does China invest in and why? What do they all have in common (e.g. all the projects help facilitate the trade of raw materials, energy, and goods that move in and out of China)? The teacher should also ensure that students attain an understanding of how the BRI works in terms of lending from Chinese state banks and contracts to Chinese companies that facilitate the migration of Chinese workers into investment locations.

Part Four - Next Class Session - 30 minutes

The Guardian developed a one-week series of articles on different projects in a variety of cities on the New Silk Road and the reactions from different governments and societies. To deepen engagement and understanding of the dynamics at play in the BRI, the teacher can assign the following homework.

Students should select two cities/articles from the Guardian special series and answer the following questions in a report of around 300 words.

How do/did the cities fit into the wider Belt and Road Initiative scheme? What investments are/were taking place in the cities and what is/was their purpose? What are the connections of the projects to China?

What have the effects of the investments been on economic, social, and political spheres in the cities?

What has the local reaction been to the projects and Chinese involvement? Why do you think that is?

What is your own reaction to the situations?

During class time, students can share and present the situations in the different cities and compare/contrast the responses and analyze why the reactions differed in different cities. I map out a matrix of the different scenarios on the board.

Part Five - 30 minutes

A final section of the topic involves exploring the relevance of the BRI to, for example, the European Union and the United States. Students should first brainstorm different ways that the project could impact these political entities. Students may consider: How could the BRI result in divisions between different countries of Europe?

This topic can then be explored through a video from The Economist examining the growing influence of China on some European countries and this VICE News video investigating the BRI in Montenegro. An accompanying worksheet can be found here. Students should take note of the ways in which the European aspects of the initiative reflect or don't reflect what they have previously learned about the New Silk Road.