| During the APEC Leaders’ Informal Meeting,China put forward a vision of jointly building the "21st Century Maritime Silk Road" in 2013,which is also an important economic and political measure since 2013.It has been 5 years since China proposed the "The Belt and Road" initiative.Time stops for no one,and the seasons keep changing.With the continuous implementation of the "The Belt and Road" construction,cooperation between China and the countries along the line has been further promoted.The construction of "The Belt and Road" has made great achievements so far,but in the process of its construction,it still faces many difficulties and challenges,one of which is the system problem.The "The Belt and Road" almost links the most complicated parts of the global geopolitics,and the countries along the line have their own special environment,including economy,politics,culture and religion,and even the politics of some countries are still turbulent.Systematic problems have to be faced and solved in the process of promoting trade between China and the countries along the line.Based on this background,this thesis examines the impact of system distance on China’s bilateral trade under the dichotomy with empirical data on economic and trade development,political situation and cultural differences of 56 countries along the line from 2002 to 2017,including the impact on the total foreign trade volume,the impact on imports,exports,and the introduction of control variables and the division of destination countries.Moreover,the economic system distance and the political system distance are studied in different dimensions.The thesis found that:(1)The traditional geographical distance hinders the import and export of bilateral trade between the countries along the line and China,which is mainly reflected in the Asian countries along the line.(2)In general,economic system distance can promote the development of bilateral trade between China and countries along the route.However,when distinguishing the geographical location of countries along the route,economic system distance has a significant positive impact on Asian countries,but a negative impact on European countries.(3)The distance between political systems also causes significant obstacles to bilateral trade between countries along the line and China,which is mainly reflected in the restriction of China’s imports,but for European countries,the political gap can promote the development of bilateral trade to some extent.(4)The distance from the cultural system is the most important factor in the bilateral trade between the countries along "The Belt and Road",and the cultural distance also has a significant negative impact on the import and export of bilateral trade.In terms of distinguishing the regions in which countries along the line,cultural distances have a significant negative impact on Asian countries,but it has a certain role in promoting European countries.(5)Generally speaking,if the countries along the road have the following characteristics: coastal or border with China,high degree of industrialization and currency devaluation,lower rate,it will promote bilateral trade between China and the country.On the other hand,the greater the economic gap between the countries along the line and China and the leading role played by the government in the economy,the more unfavorable it is to foreign trade.The novelties of this thesis is mainly embodied in the following aspects:(1)Starting from economy,politics and culture,this paper establishes a relatively comprehensive and complete empirical model to explain the problem more directly from the perspective of data,which makes up for the deficiency of the existing empirical literature in selecting only one aspect of economic system or political system when researching system distance.(2)On the basis of the overall research,this thesis studies the distances of political system and economic system from different dimensions,which makes the relevant policy recommendations more pertinent.(3)The factors affecting China’s trade with the countries along the border have been quantified and analyzed.The exploration of the above issues has expanded the essence of the "The Belt and Road" policy,which to a certain extent can play a positive role in promoting the implementation of the "The Belt and Road" initiative. |
