A Study On The Impact Of The Belt And Road Initiative On China’s Cultural Product Exports

During his visits to Kazakhstan and Indonesia in September and October2013,President Xi Jinping launched a number of important initiatives for the joint construction of the "21st Century Silk Road Economic Belt and Maritime Silk Road".Different from previous international multilateral cooperation platforms,the Belt and Road Initiative has elevated culture to a strategic position on the same level as politics and economy,which is the requirement for enhancing China’s cultural soft power and improving international competitiveness.Further deepening cultural exchanges and cooperation with countries along the Belt and Road is an important means for China to pursue this initiative.According to the Ministry of Commerce,China’s cultural trade developed steadily and rapidly in2019.Cultural exports amounted to US$99.89 billion,up 7.9%,and exports to countries along the Belt and Road increased by 24.9%,ranking first among China’s overseas cultural exports.However,China’s current export of cultural products still has the problems of unreasonable export structure,insufficient subsidiary value,and lack of cultural products with brand effect;At the same time,there are still obstacles and challenges in the export of cultural products,and some developed countries have implemented trade protection policies for China,which has increased the barriers to trade protection between countries.Therefore,repositioning the cultural products market and renewing its new trade potential has become an urgent task for cultural products exports in the context of ’One Belt,One Road’.Against this background,the current status of China’s cultural product exports to its major trading partners from 2010 to 2019 is analysed based on panel data on China’s cultural product exports to these countries.this paper will empirically study the impact of the "Belt and Road" on China’s cultural product exports by using the Differences-in-Differences method,and further absorb the heterogeneity impact analysis of countries along different income standards,land Silk Road and maritime Silk Road countries,and countries with different institutional distances.Further and on the basis of the benchmark econometric model,the transmission mechanism of the "Belt and Road" to stimulate the growth of China’s exports of cultural products to countries along the route is tested from the perspective of reducing trade costs and consolidating bilateral political relations.The results of the study show that.(1)The implementation of the Belt and Road Initiative has led to a significant increase in Chinese cultural exports to countries along the route,indicating that the Belt and Road Initiative can promote Chinese cultural exports;(2)the results of the heterogeneity analysis show that the cultural product export promotion effect of the Belt and Road Initiative is more pronounced for low-income countries along the route,Maritime Silk Road countries and countries with closer institutional distance.(3)There are differences in the effect of the "Belt and Road" initiative on the increase in cultural exports of the Overland Silk Road and the Maritime Silk Road,and the cultural export effect of China to the countries of the Maritime Silk Road is more obvious;(4)The growth effect of the "Belt and Road" initiative on the export of China’s cultural products to countries with different institutions is also different,and China’s export effect to countries with long institutional distances is not as significant as that of countries with close institutional distances.(5)"The main channels through which the ’One Belt,One Road’ initiative promotes the export of Chinese cultural products are the reduction of trade costs and the strengthening of bilateral political relations".Based on the findings of the study,this paper makes the following suggestions on how Chinese cultural exports can be better promoted through thethe "Belt and Road" initiative:(1)Strengthen the innovation and protection of cultural products,promote the optimisation of the structure of China’s export products,and promote the development of cultural industries in countries along the "Belt and Road".(2)Actively promote the construction of "Belt and Road" facility connectivity,cooperate with countries along the route to improve transportation infrastructure along the route,and further reduce trade costs.(3)Actively promote the construction of people-to-people ties along the "Belt and Road",establish bilateral friendly relations,reduce cultural obstacles to trade in cultural products,and accelerate the promotion of Chinese culture "going out" and the export of Chinese cultural products.The main contributions and innovations of the text are:(1)In terms of research perspective and content,this paper supplements the research on the field of people-to-people connection in the construction of the "Belt and Road" to a certain extent by studying the trade of cultural products,and to a certain extent refines the study of the effect of the "Belt and Road" initiative.(2)In terms of research methods,this paper uses the Difference-in-Difference method to empirically examine the impact and mechanism of the "Belt and Road" initiative on the cultural product exports,which is a more accurate and reliable method for quantitative assessment.