the Belt and Road Initiative in Xi'an, Shaanxi province on Tuesday. HUO YAN / CHINA DAILY on the original Silk Road, passing through Central Asia, West Asia, the Middle East and Europe, as well as the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road, which covers Southeast Asia, Oceania and North Africa. By the end of J

limitations, its borderless online conversations are offsetting the region's political, religious, social, and cultural balkanization. The people of West Asia and North Africa are talking among themselves, even if their governments remain remote. That is a source of hope, if not yet of the systematic and co