The Political Economy of China-Thailand Development Under the One Belt One Road Initiative: Challenges and Opportunities

China has prospered and turned into a world superpower due to the rapid economic growth in the Old Silk Road era. President Xi Jinping of the People's Republic of China, being aware of this fact, has the desire to revitalize the Silk Road and, thus, on his official visit to Kazakhstan in September 2014, declared the commencement of the Belt and Road Initiative, or One Belt One Road (OBOR) strategies aiming to develop bilateral and multilateral economy. Under the concept of this New Silk Road, or OBOR, China has the intention to connect and develop the infrastructure leading to central Asia and Europe. This will also cover the Southeast Asia region. Thailand, having much better geopolitical and geo-economic conditions than other Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) countries, has been foreseen to be the hub that will link the countries both inside and outside the ASEAN region. The objective of this paper is to investigate and discuss the challenges and opportunities for Thailand under China's OBOR strategy framework. It can obviously be viewed that China's OBOR conforms to Thailand's international trade strategy as being the center of connectivity with the countries both inside and outside ASEAN. And this will result in the long lasting growth of the economy of Thailand. China's OBOR strategies, especially the promotion of OBOR through the Southeast Asia region, will encourage cooperation between China and ASEAN in various aspects, for example, transportation, trade, investment, energy, and regional cooperation, which will directly and indirectly benefit ASEAN nations including Thailand, whose geo-economic advantage makes it suitable to be the center of the other ASEAN countries.