It is possible for China, in its rise, to tread a path different from those taken in the past by Britain or the United States, because the idea of peaceful, open and inclusive development it advocates does make sense in our current world, scholars said.

Each of the rising powers in the past had advocated different concepts and ideas that answered the need of their respective times, Zheng Yongnian, a renowned scholar on China studies, said in recent published comments on Lianhe Zaobao.

But he said that China “will not, and cannot take the paths that had been taken by Britain and the United States in the past.”

…Oh Ei Sun, senior fellow at S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, Nanyang Technological University, said that he saw the need for infrastructural projects on trips across the region and dismissed the suspicion harbored by some on whether China could use the railway for other purposes.

“It is not difficult to block a railway any time,” he said. ” China can show the benefit by launching such projects where they are welcome.”