From hierarchy to networking: the evolution of the “twenty-first-century Maritime Silk Road” container shipping system

ABSTRACT

Container shipping gives a rise of international trade since the 1960s. Based on navigation data start from the mid-1990s to 2016, this paper empirically analyses the spatial pattern of China’s international maritime linkages along the “twenty-first-century Maritime Silk Road”. We interpret such evolutionary dynamics in terms of growth, hierarchical diffusion and networking phases. Networking is a new stage of the evolution of the port system, which is approached based on the graph theory, complex network methods and geomatics, the paper discusses the networking’s basic characteristics: multi-hub spatial agglomeration, the connection of the network develops across space, functional differentiation and a division of labour appear among ports. Our results show that, while the scope of China’s maritime linkages had expanded overtime, more foreign ports become connected to the “Maritime Silk Road”. In addition, the external linkages of domestic ports tend to be dispersed, reflecting upon the decline of Pearl River Delta ports and the rise of Yangtze River Delta ports, with mixed evidence for the Bohai Rim region. Lastly, the analysis underlines the emergence of a polycentric shipping system, from the Hong Kong dominance to the more diversified Shanghai/Ningbo/Shenzhen configuration. Academic and managerial implications are included.

KEYWORDS:

• Maritime Silk Road
• shipping system
• spatial pattern
• networking

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

ORCID

César Ducruet http://orcid.org/0000-0002-0946-4712

Yui-yip Lau http://orcid.org/0000-0002-4011-5625

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Research Grant of the National Natural Science Foundation of China [grant number 41371140], Major program of National Social Science Fund of China [grant number 16ZAD016], the MOE Project of Key Research Institute of Humanities and Social Sciences at Universities [grant number 17JJD790007], the European Research Council under the European Union's Seventh Framework Programme [FP/2007-2013]/ERC grant agreement n. [313847] World Seastems. Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities [grant number 2017ECNU-HWFW048].