The final test of the large mine ball mill will be sent to Mongolia on February 7, 2024. (PHOTO: VCG)

By QI Liming

In late January, the Foreign Policy and The Diplomat websites released two similar articles on the same day. The articles examined the Belt and Road Initiative(BRI) in a rational and panoramic way. Very different from the cliché press reports by some Western media outlets that constantly smear the BRI, the Foreign Policy article The Red Sea Crisis Proves China Was Ahead of the Curve explains how the BRI is not a sinister plot. Rather, it is a blueprint for what every nation needs in an age of uncertainty and disruption, said the article.

Parag Khanna, founder and managing partner of global strategic advisory firm FutureMap, and the article's author, said, "The Red Sea crisis shows that the BRI is vital to all countries." There is precisely one pathway for a world plagued by dire mistrust and unpredictable crises to take meaningful collective action in the global public interest, and that is to build more pathways for supply to meet demand, said Khanna. The solution to supply interruptions is more supply chains. More belts, more roads. China is the country that has known this, and acted on it for years, he said.

In his article Khanna also mentioned that, from a functional perspective, the BRI represents what all countries should do in their own national interest: build as many pathways as possible for supply to meet demand, both as a hedge against unforeseen disruptions, but also to boost one's connectivity and influence.

For overpopulated developing countries, solid infrastructure is essential to cope with domestic demands, as it generates economic multiplier effects, and builds connectivity to the world economy.

Many Western governments and the mainstream media hold long-standing distrust and criticism towards the BRI. In fact, rational and objective opinions should, therefore, be valued.

According to The St Andrews Economist website, on November 28, 2023, a symposium was held in Brussels to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the BRI. At the symposium, Bart Dessein, a professor at the University of Gent, said that the BRI's 3,000 projects had resulted in the creation of 420,000 jobs globally. Meanwhile, Bernard Dewit, Chairman of the Belgian-Chinese Chamber of Commerce, praised the BRI for aiding countries in developing more rapidly. "It has been a success, and that is the reality," he said.

As Khanna said, the BRI has also significantly promoted economic cooperation and cultural exchange between China and other countries. The initiative has fostered partnerships in sectors such as trade, investment, technology and education. For example, the BRI-supported China-Pakistan Economic Corridor has facilitated joint ventures in energy, infrastructure, and agriculture between the two countries.

"Even though Chinese-led versus Western-led initiatives are portrayed as zero-sum, in most cases infrastructure such as ports and electricity grids are nonexcludable and nonrival and open to any commercial user and providing equal service to those users," said Khanna. In fact, each infrastructure project, whether a pipeline, electrical grid or Internet cable, inadvertently advances the far grander project of transforming the world into an interconnected supply chain system. The answer to the question as to the fate of infrastructure is the same as for the globalization it underpins, he concluded.

The volatile international situation and recurring regional crises are the current status quo. The BRI has demonstrated the power of connectivity, created greater development space for many countries, and objectively played a role in hedging risks. This has led to the value and the global significance of the BRI being realized by more countries.

There is a growing realization that only when countries work together to achieve common development through connectivity, can they meet global challenges and safeguard world peace and prosperity.