2023-10-20 16:00:00
2023-10-21 00:00 Economic Daily Economic Daily Editorial Chinese President Xi Jinping attended the opening ceremony of the third “Belt and Road” International Cooperation Summit Forum on the 18th and delivered a keynote speech…
The third “Belt and Road” International Cooperation Summit Forum concluded on the 18th, which coincides with the tenth anniversary of this initiative. Therefore, it has attracted global attention, and its merits and demerits can also be initially reviewed.
In 2013, President Xi Jinping of mainland China proposed to jointly build the “Silk Road Economic Belt” and the “21st Century Maritime Silk Road” to form the “Belt and Road” initiative. Subsequently, the initiative was transformed from concept to action, and from vision to reality. This global initiative and construction focuses on the Eurasian continent and spans different regions, different development stages, and different civilizations. It can be said to be an open cooperation platform and a global public product jointly created for all countries. This forum brings together leaders from more than 140 countries and 23 countries around the world, proving that it has been successful in ten years. In addition to the economically advanced countries, all parties around the world hope to use this platform to continue to promote common development.
Over the past ten years, China has signed more than 200 cooperation documents on the Belt and Road Initiative with more than 150 countries and more than 30 international organizations, and formed more than 3,000 cooperation projects, attracting investments worth trillions of dollars. There are hidden worries, but the fruitful results are hard to deny. Especially in the context of globalization encountering headwinds, relevant countries showing their desire for common development will actually help raise the international community’s expectations for economic globalization. In the current uncertain and unstable world, it is more urgent for countries to cooperate to promote development, so jointly building the Belt and Road Initiative is more in line with the development needs of most countries.
The Belt and Road Initiative first benefits China. At present, goods from co-building countries account for nearly half of China’s overall imports. A large number of Chinese companies have obtained contract projects in the international market, effectively relieving the problem of overcapacity and benefiting China’s opening up and foreign cooperation. Its spillover effect in integrating underdeveloped countries and helping geo-economic development is obvious and huge. This is also the fundamental reason why the Chinese Communist Party authorities strive to implement the initiative.
Through the three Belt and Road International Cooperation Summit Forums, China has established multilateral cooperation with its partners in more than 20 fields including railways, ports, finance, taxation, energy, green development, green investment, disaster reduction, anti-corruption, think tanks, media, and culture. The platform for dialogue and cooperation will have considerable economic and diplomatic benefits for China in the future. In the international environment where the Alliance of Southern Nations is gradually taking shape, its far-reaching impact on reshaping the geopolitical landscape cannot be underestimated.
The Belt and Road Initiative has been criticized and questioned for a lot of reasons. In particular, it has caused debt crises in some countries. There are many practical cases to follow. However, we must also recognize that if these countries do not have financial difficulties, why do they need to rely on the Belt and Road mechanism for infrastructure construction? Moreover, borrowing money to invest in infrastructure is helpful for economic development, and it is inevitable to experience some hardships. As for the loss of national autonomy in the planning process and debt repayment methods of some countries, the lack of transparency during the period, the failure to achieve the set goals, and even corruption, human rights, democratic regression, resource plunder, doubts regarding neo-colonialism and other issues, In fact, this is something that the construction country must bear on its own.
If it is so simple to promote infrastructure around the world, why are other international countermeasures such as the Blue Dot Network, the Global Infrastructure and Investment Partnership, the Global Gateway, and Building a Better World less successful? It can be seen that the Belt and Road Initiative is relatively pragmatic and can be implemented.
The United States and other economically advanced countries have criticized the Belt and Road Initiative a lot, but most of them stem from a shady mentality, and most of the criticisms are exaggerated. In fact, as of the end of 2021, only 5.3% of the Belt and Road projects have been disputed, and the amount of disputes has accounted for 10.4%. However, it cannot be denied that China is competing with the United States for dominance in the global political and economic order. China has become the world’s largest single creditor through its Belt and Road Initiative. It is indeed using its leverage to influence the policies of other countries and thereby expand its own interests. This is also a hidden concern for some countries considering whether to continue participating in the Belt and Road Initiative.
After ten years of operation, the Belt and Road Initiative has achieved results. In order to compete with Western countries, China has benefited a lot from it, but it has also formed an interconnected international circulation pattern around the world, through thousands of real projects. , changing the face of infrastructure in some countries and becoming a platform to boost development and ease the regional gap between rich and poor. More importantly, the Belt and Road Initiative has shown the world a new value orientation, that is, the idea that mankind has a shared destiny and must support each other. This is different from the values held by Western countries that have dominated the world order for hundreds of years.
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