The Initiative of Joint Construction of “One Belt, One Road”

The Party Central Committee, with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core, has made a major decision to create a more comprehensive, deeper and more diversified pattern of opening up to the outside world. The term “One Belt” refers to the Silk Road Economic Belt and the “One Road” refers to the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road. In a speech at Kazakhstan’s Nazarbayev University on September 7, 2013, President Xi Jinping proposed building a new Silk Road Economic Belt to expand the economic cooperation. An innovative cooperative approach was outlined, starting with individual projects that were expected to help spur larger-scale regional cooperative development. In order to boost China-ASEAN maritime cooperation and forge closer ties in a community with a shared future, President Xi Jinping proposed jointly building a 21st Century Maritime Silk Road in his speech to the Indonesian parliament on October 3, 2013. In his keynote speech at the CICA Summit on May 21, 2014, Xi Jinping pointed out that China would work with other countries to accelerate the construction of the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road, participate more deeply in regional cooperation, and promote the development and security of Asia. At the end of 2014, the Chinese government invested 10 billion U.S. dollars to establish the Silk Road Fund Co., Ltd.(Silk Road Fund), in order to provide investment and financing services for the Belt and Road Initiative.

In May 2017, President Xi Jinping announced that China would contribute an additional 100 billion yuan to the fund. In March 2015, the Chinese government issued the “Vision and Actions on Jointly Building Silk Road Economic Belt and 21st Century Maritime Silk Road”, which explained the origin, content and goals of this initiative comprehensively from eight perspectives, including background, principles, framework, cooperation priorities, cooperation mechanisms, China’s regions in pursuing opening-up, China in action, and embracing a brighter future together.

The initiative was put forward against a backdrop of the complex and profound changes in the world. Recent years, the underlying impact of the international financial crisis kept emerging; the world economy was recovering slowly, and global development was uneven; the international trade and investment landscape and rules for multilateral trade and investment were undergoing major adjustments; and countries were still faced with big challenges to their development. Therefore, the development of the world economy and the reform of the international system were in urgent need of new impetus. The initiative to jointly build the Belt and Road, which embraced the trend towards a multipolar world, economic globalization, cultural diversity and greater IT application, was designed to uphold the global free trade regime and the open world economy in the spirit of open regional cooperation. It was aimed at promoting orderly and free flow of economic factors, highly efficient allocation of resources and deep integration of markets; encouraging the countries along the Belt and Road to achieve economic policy coordination and carry out broader and more in-depth regional cooperation of higher standards.

The Belt and Road ran through the continents of Asia, Europe and Africa, connecting the vibrant East Asia economic circle at one end and developed European economic circle at the other, and encompassing countries with huge potential for economic development. In 2014, the total population along the Belt and Road was approximately 4.4 billion, and the total economic volume reached about US$21 trillion, accounting for nearly 63% and 29% of the total amount of the world respectively. The Silk Road Economic Belt focuses on bringing together China, Central Asia, Russia and Europe (the Baltic); linking China with the Persian Gulf and the Mediterranean Sea through Central Asia and West Asia; and connecting China with Southeast Asia, South Asia and the Indian Ocean.

The 21st Century Maritime Silk Road is designed to go from China’s coast to Europe through the South China Sea and the Indian Ocean in one route, and from China’s coast through the South China Sea to the South Pacific in the other. Obviously, the essence of the Belt and Road is connectivity. If the “Belt and Road” are likened to be the two swings of a soaring Asia, then the connectivity is like their arteties and veins. Countries along the Belt and Road have their own resource advantages and their economies are mutually complementary. Therefore, there is a great potential and space for cooperation. They should promote policy coordination, facilities connectivity, unimpeded trade, financial integration and people-to-people bonds as their five major goals.

The “Belt and Road” Initiative, supported by the economic corridors, focuses on the construction of transportation infrastructure and the financing platforms. Being an important way of cultural exchanges, it is designed to consolidate the economic foundation, financial platform and social foundation of the connectivity of Asian countries. The Chinese government advocates that, the joint construction of the “Belt and Road” should be in line with the purposes and principles of the UN Charter and the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence, and through consultation to meet the interests of all. The Initiative, which is open for cooperation, harmonious and inclusive, should also follow market operation and seek mutual benefit.

In terms of cooperation mechanisms, the Chinese government advocates making full use of existing bilateral and multilateral ones, such as the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), ASEAN Plus China (10+1), Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC), Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM), Asia Cooperation Dialogue (ACD), Conference on Interaction and Confidence-Building Measures in Asia (CICA), China-Arab States Cooperation Forum (CASCF), China-Gulf Cooperation Council Strategic Dialogue, Greater Mekong Sub-region (GMS) Economic Cooperation, and Central Asia Regional Economic Cooperation (CAREC), to attract more countries and regions to participate in the Belt and Road Initiative. The Initiative has received a warm response from the international community, as well as the support and participation of many domestic provinces, cities, departments and enterprises. For example, in the APEC Economic Leaders’ Meeting (AELM) held in November 2014, the leaders reached a consensus on the “Beijing Roadmap for APEC’s Contribution to the Realization of the Free Trade Area of the Asia-Pacific (FTAAP)” and adopted the “APEC Connectivity Blueprint”.

In December 2015, the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) was established. It was another major achievement of the “Belt and Road” construction. By providing financing for infrastructure projects in Asia, it could make up for the current world financial system. Headquartered in Beijing, the bank currently has 80 members, including 15 countries in the G20, major developed countries except the United States and Japan, and most developing countries and regions in Europe and Asia. In May 2017, the Chinese government held the first Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation in Beijing. Delegates from more than 130 countries, including the heads of state of 29 countries and the leaders of many international organizations such as the United Nations attended the forum.

Since the “Belt and Road”, especially the Belt, start in the west, and mainly go westward to West Asia and Europe, it will inevitably bring about a major adjustment in the geographical pattern of China’s opening-up. It helps build the “one body with two wings” structure of the opening-up, making inland border areas the frontier of the opening-up. As a new impetus, the central and western regions take on the responsibility of the development and revitalization of 2/3 of the whole country’s land area. Together with the eastern region, it will play an important role in China’s opening-up.

The “Belt and Road” Initiative conforms to the needs of international economic and trade cooperation and the transformation of economic and trade mechanisms. It is closely related to China’s free trade area strategy. The implement of the initiative will surely benefit the development of the strategy. The initiative calls on countries along the Silk Road to jointly build “a community with shared interests” and “a community with a shared future” featuring equality, mutual benefit and win-win cooperation. It draws a new blueprint of the economic corridor featuring the connectivity of production factors across Asia, Europe and Africa, and creates opportunities for the mutual complementarity, opening up and further development of countries along the route. The initiative is also the embodiment of China’s diplomatic philosophy of amity, sincerity, mutual benefit and inclusiveness and the diplomatic policy of building good neighborly relationships and partnerships with neighboring countries. It also shows that China has always upheld justice in the pursuit of interests, and strengthened solidarity and cooperation with developing countries.