When, with three bangs on a gong, Xi Jinping welcomed a freight train to the Rhine river port of Duisburg in March, he issued a call for Germany to join China in developing a “New Silk Road” between their two economies.

With that, the Chinese president was asking Germany to take part in what has become a strategic pet project. Since taking office in 2013, Mr Xi has regularly deployed the idea of a New Silk Road between China and Europe during his travels. In Sri Lanka last month he touted a “21st-century maritime silk road” as he inaugurated a $1.5bn port project.

Mr Xi’s ambitions are driven in part by a desire to improve inland and particularly western China’s connections with Europe. Taken at face value, they amount to what could be the biggest shake up in global trade routes since China began its emergence as a big player in international trade two decades ago.