Armed with tens of billions of dollars in investment deals and romantic tales of ancient explorers, Chinese President Xi Jinping spent much of September and October promoting his vision of two new "Silk Roads" to connect his country to the West and secure its energy supplies — one by land and another by sea.
In the process, he has eclipsed an American vision of a "New Silk Road" that was advanced with much fanfare by then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton two years ago and was supposed to revitalize Afghanistan as the link between Central and South Asia.
The contrast between the two visions — one with huge sums of money on the table now, the other struggling to get off the ground — only underlines how China's ever-growing clout in Asia is challenging the influence of the United States.
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