Compare the silk road with the Great Wall China as symbols of Chinese foreign policy.

The great wall of China represents the very own Chinese political concept of being "Country of the Middle/Center" building of the wall was a try to create boundary in the only place on Chinese bordere where there wwas none natural one. It represents view of the Chinese closest neighbors as barbaric one that need to be held outside of China. Silk road from the other hand represents view that China should trade and contact with other cultures which are worthy of that and exchange goods and ideas between them. Both approach represent something what may be called "Chinese exceptionalism" That kind of view determined Chinese foreign policy during first millennium.