The first 10 years of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI): Can a China-led global economy balance out Washington’s imperialism and find the world’s equilibrium?

Yesterday, the third Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation (BRF) concluded in Beijing, with the attendance of officials from 130 countries, including heads of state and the Secretary General of the United Nations, Antonio Gutteres. China presented the accomplishments of the BRI around the world during the past decade nurturing global growth.

The third BRF had the look and feel of a de-facto official response to the anti-China hype, starting from the US as abrupt “de-coupling” and being localised in the EU as “de-risking” with caveats. This was substantiated through the BRI by the numerous development projects globally, from railway infrastructure, trade agreements and the digital economy, to banking, green development and culture.

The President of China, Xi Jinping, welcomed the high level participants of the Forum, discussing the growth of BRI from blueprints to large tangible projects connecting the world. He stressed that the fruits of BRI in various countries, airports, motorways, railways, ports, trade, e-commerce and energy projects have shaped on their own the world economy paving the way to a new era of connectivity through the Initiative.

Xi’s speech

Xi mentioned in his speech: “Trains speeding along rail tracks, automobiles running on roads, flights connecting different countries, cargo ships breaking waves, and e-commerce bringing so much convenience to people — they have all become symbols of international trade in the new era, just like camel caravans and the sailing ships were for the past age. Hydro, wind and solar energy based power plants, oil and gas pipelines, and the increasingly smart and interconnected power transmission networks are removing the development bottleneck caused by energy shortage and fulfilling the dream of developing countries to achieve green and low-carbon development. These energy projects have become the oasis and lighthouse for sustainable development in the new era. Brand new airports and harbors, smooth roads, and newly built industrial parks for business cooperation have created new economic corridors and new growth drivers, and have become the trading routes and staging posts of the new era.”

Xi also referred to China’s contribution in the fight against COVID-19 pandemic, with billions of vaccines and PPEs donated to the developing world. He didn’t omit to also thank all the nations that helped China in tackling the pandemic, underlining the connectivity that BRI partners share in the world united.

Trading with 140 countries around the world has surely made BRI impactful, shaping its own China-led pole of global economy. With a reference to the BRI synergies, the Head of China said: “We have learned that win-win cooperation is the sure way to success in launching major initiatives that benefit all. When countries embrace cooperation and act in concert, a deep chasm can be turned into a thoroughfare, land-locked countries can become land-linked, and a place of underdevelopment can be transformed into a land of prosperity. Countries taking the lead in economic development should give a hand to their partners who are yet to catch up. We should all treat each other as friends and partners, respect and support each other, and help each other succeed. As the saying goes, when you give roses to others, their fragrance lingers on your hand. In other words, helping others is also helping oneself. Viewing others’ development as a threat or taking economic interdependence as a risk will not make one’s own life better or speed up one’s development.”

He added that BRI, apart from global development, it also means global peace: “We have learned that the Silk Road spirit of peace and cooperation, openness and inclusiveness, mutual learning and mutual benefit is the most important source of strength for Belt and Road cooperation. I once said that the pioneers of the ancient silk routes won their place in history not as conquerors with warships, guns, horses or swords. Rather, they are remembered as friendly emissaries leading camel caravans and sailing ships loaded with goods. Belt and Road cooperation is based on the belief that flame runs high when everyone adds wood to the fire and that mutual support can get us far. Such cooperation seeks to deliver a good life not only to people of just one country, but to people in other countries as well. It promotes connectivity, mutual benefit, common development, cooperation and win-win outcomes. Ideological confrontation, geopolitical rivalry and bloc politics are not a choice for us. What we stand against are unilateral sanctions, economic coercion and decoupling and supply chain disruption.”.

President Xi paved the way to the future of the BRI with the 8 distinct steps China will be leading the way:

1.Building a multidimensional Belt and Road connectivity network, referring to grant projects like the China-Europe Railway Express, the trans-Caspian international transportation corridor, the China-Europe Railway Express Cooperation Forum, logistics Eurasian corridors, the Silk Road Maritime umbrella project, under which ports, shipping and trading services will be placed, and the ambitious new projects of New International Land-Sea Trade Corridor and the Air Silk Road.

2.An open world economy, with Silk Road e-commerce, FTAs, removing any restriction in foreign investments, opening up global trade across borders, make reforms for state-owned companies, IP, government procurement and digital economy. China will be organizing annually until 2028 the Global Digital Trade Expo. China’s trade with the world is estimated to reach USD 32 trillion in goods and USD 5 trillion in services.

3.Practical cooperation, China Development Bank and the Export-Import Bank of China will launch financial projects of RMB 350 billion each. Also, the Silk Road Fund will be boosted with another RMB 80 billion to support together with the Banks BRI projects globally. Just on the sidelines of this Forum USD 97.2 billion have been secured in contracts with companies. China will also perform 1,000 small-scale livelihoods projects and vocational education globally.

4.Green development, surely another priority of BRI, with green energy and infrastructure projects, while the country will also form the BRI International Green Development Coalition. Through the BRI Green Innovation Conference, several mechanisms will be explored for the solar industry and low CO2 emission strategies. President Xi said in particular that “China will implement the Green Investment Principles for the Belt and Road, and provide 100,000 training opportunities for partner countries by 2030.”.

5.Science and innovation of technologies is another focus of the BRI, China will form the Belt and Road Science, Technology and Innovation Cooperation Action Plan, hold the first Belt and Road Conference on Science and Technology Exchange. BRI will also invest on partnerships with 100 laboratories around the world. Also, BRI will focus on BRI by forming the Global Initiative for Artificial Intelligence (AI) Governance.

6. People to people, a traditional focus of China, will also play an important role in the future steps of the BRI. Projects like the Silk Road International League of Theaters, the Silk Road International Arts Festival, the International Alliance of Museums of the Silk Road, the Silk Road International Alliance of Art Museums, and the Silk Road International Library Alliance aspire to be global cultural pillars. Moreover, the International Tourism Alliance of Silk Road Cities is another ambitious project together with the increase of scholarships to BRI partners.

7. Another crucial aspect of the BRI is that China aspires to give to it the colour of an international organisation, with monitoring and integrity mechanism for actors participating in the BRI projects.

8. Moreover, next to the aforementioned focus on monitoring integrity, in the next years China aspires the BRI to become a fully fledged cooperation platform with cooperation protocols on the key items in the agenda like energy and green development but also anti-corruption, taxation and disaster response, while at the same time the secretariat of the Forum will be shaped.

BRI 2.0, a unique momentum for China and the world

China has produced such a detailed and comprehensive work on BRI and its future, that it appears to have become a gigantic platform of cooperating countries and companies around the world with specific structure and processes. Surely, no matter how strategic Washington is in its interfering policies across the globe, the BRI is clearly a whole different level of strategizing global cooperation. Not to mention that the EU’s wannabe rival to BRI, the “Global Gateway”, looks like a university student union project compared to the BRI.

That the BRI is massive, powerful and ambitious is one thing. China though also has a rare opportunity with the implementation of the above strategy, which inescapably makes all its rivals furiously envy, to become a solid pillar nurturing cooperation, growth and stability at a global scale. The gaps that other major international cooperation organizations like the United Nations leave due to their systemic imperfections create a very fertile ground for BRI to thrive.

If even half of the above is realized, then in five years from now we will be talking about a wealthier world, with better infrastructure, less poverty and reduced need for conflict. Consequently, as BRI offers a glimpse of hope for the world, the US and the EU could support it and benefit, instead of fighting it. If the US and the EU stop for a moment to blindly fight China and join forces, the value of synergies will grow exponentially and aside from making a buck they will feed the world.

As there is no other platform like BRI out there with a solid pledge to benefit the world, perhaps the West has better calculate the gains from BRI better than running an anti-China campaign of de-coupling and de-risking for the sake of waving the 50-star flag. Perhaps “de-livering” prosperity and peace globally is more important after all?