The 'Belt and Road' strategy a prime opportunity for Chinese dream
- By Han Fangming
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E-mail China.org.cn, March 11, 2015
The "Belt and Road," referring to the "New Silk Road Economic Belt" and the "21st Century Maritime Silk Road," is a recent strategy proposed by the CPC Central Committee headed by President Xi Jinping.
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[By Zhai Haijun/China.org.cn] |
It is a prime opportunity in achieving the Chinese dream because it will not only facilitate China's own development but also invites the countries on the "Belt" and "Road" to develop with us, in proving how "the Chinese dream is part of the dream of the whole of mankind in seeking a better life." The following are three aspects in which the strategy could help realize the Chinese dream.
First, it signifies a transition from China's urge "to be integrated into globalization" to its intention "to shape globalization," from "China opens to the world" to "the world opens to China."
China established its own independent and peaceful development mode in the past five decades, although China was never the pacemaker of major international trends. But since the reform and opening-up policy started to change things in 1978, China sought to merge into the international community. Today, China is leading the world trend in certain areas in its own effort to shape globalization.
The Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Maritime Silk Road mark a new chapter in China's opening up. The implication of such changes is that opening up in China now involves more "going out," whereas in the past, "inviting in" was the predominant objective. Geographically, opening up now gives preference to China's western and southern regions to boost the development of those places. In the opening up, China is complying with regional economic integration and actively builds free trade zones with neighboring countries to ensure the free flow of goods, capital and labor.
Second, the "Belt and Road" initiatives will help China integrate with Europe. The strategy connects the Asia-Pacific region, the engine of the world's economy, and the European Union, the world's largest economy, to ensure connectivity on a higher level, offering opportunities to both the Europe and Asia.
The "Belt and Road" development will lead to streamlining trade and investment, deepening economic and technological cooperation, establishing FTZs, and eventually forming a grand Eurasian market. This will prioritize the allocation of production elements in the region to facilitate regional economic integration, and ultimately achieve shared development in all the members within the region.
Recently, the European Union put forward the "Lisbon-Vladivostok" concept, and Russia proposed a similar strategy, but China's "Belt and Road" concept is bigger, more practical and more inclusive. It overrides the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) and the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), among other forms of international cooperation that seek to alienate China.
When China was devising the agenda, mechanism and idea for the "Belt and Road," it no longer based such issues on the U.S.-led WTO; instead, China will allow countries in Asia, Europe and Africa to "hitchhike" on the rapid development of China. Such inclusiveness represents China's strategic measures in peripheral diplomacy. Historically, all major nations had to get along with their neighbors in peripheral regions before spreading their influence worldwide.
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