Students from BRI partner countries experience traditional Chinese medicine at a hospital in Qingdao, east China's Shandong province. (PHOTO: XINHUA)

By LONG Chen

After ten fruitful years of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), Chinese President Xi Jinping unveiled eight major steps China will take to support the joint pursuit of high-quality Belt and Road cooperation. This demonstrates BRI cooperation begins to develop in quality and depth.

At a time when anti-globalization, unilateralism, protectionism, and the encouragement of "decoupling" among countries are on the rise, China has become a central pillar of multilateralism by supporting geo-economic strategies instead of geopolitical strategies, while sharing opportunities and fruits of development with the international community.

Adherence to multilateral cooperation has become the "ballast stone" for stable and long-term implementation of BRI

In spite of the threat posed by the pandemic, the BRI cooperation has shown strong resilience and vitality. The BRI participants have jointly focused on global public health cooperation and made great efforts to build a Health Silk Road, further enriching the connotation of high-quality BRI cooperation.

According to data from The Belt and Road Initiative: A Key Pillar of the Global Community of Shared Future, by the end of August 2023, more than 80 countries and international organizations have participated in the Initiative on Promoting Unimpeded Trade Cooperation. China has signed 21 free trade agreements with 28 countries and regions, and bilateral investment treaties with 135 countries and regions. The BRI cooperation continues to fly in the face of negative pushback and those who advocate the "China threat" theory.

BRI has drawn a new blueprint for the development of globalization

Under the "Core-periphery" division of labor system of neoliberal economic globalization, the political worries caused by economic problems have provided a breeding ground for anti-globalization trends such as trade protectionism. The imbalance of interest distribution and the intensification of domestic contradictions have pulled the once-globalization advocates gradually back to an anti-globalization stance.

However, different from the resource allocation model in neoliberal economic globalization, the resource allocation under the BRI is implemented in a win-win way by promoting the rapid development of exporting countries. In addition, globalization under the outdated world order has caused developing countries to be invisible. However, with China's BRI, countries that had been "forced to be invisible" have re-emerged on the international stage through close coordination and cooperation with each other, making globalization real.

Eight major steps will guard the development of globalization

Among the eight major steps President Xi announced, the first is to continue to support building a multidimensional BRI connectivity network. The main artery of economic globalization will be further opened up by establishing pilot zones for Silk Road e-commerce cooperation to conform to the development trend of the new era, and taking the lead in completely removing all restrictions on foreign investment access in the manufacturing sector to break trade barriers.

On the issue of coordinated development, China promotes both signature projects and "small yet smart" livelihood programs. It implements the principle of "teaching people to fish on their own" rather than "draining the pond to fish." China's proposal to carry out 1,000 small livelihood assistance projects is an important manifestation of its commitment to pursuing common progress and development with the world's people.

In the face of global governance challenges, China attaches importance to the strength of all humankind and all countries. At the recent Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation, China proposed to continue to deepen cooperation in areas such as green infrastructure, green energy and green transportation.

Such a move intends to build and improve the cross-border green industrial chain, step up support for BRI International Green Development Coalition, better implement the principle of green investment, and drive BRI green value chain upgrades.

On the occasion of the 10th anniversary of the BRI, China's proposal to further deepen BRI cooperation reflects not only its confidence in the common progress and development of humankind, but also delivers a strong blow against so-called unilateralism and protectionism.

LONG Chen is an assistant research fellow at Chongyang Institute for Financial Studies, Renmin University of China.