C OvER sTORY
initiative can encourage a new type of coop-
eration, which can be dubbed Globalisation
2.0,” said Zhang Yunling. Zhang argued that
the Belt and Road’s focus on inclusiveness
and sustainable development can address the
concerns over the development of globalisa-
tion.
“The existing model of globalisation ben-
efits big corporations and excludes many
groups, communities and countries from
its process, and the Belt and Road initiative
can help to solve some of its problems,” said
Zhang.
Zhang’s view was echoed by Professor
Wang Honggang, director of the Institute
of World Politics at China Institutes of Con-
temporary International Relations, who ar-
gued that a major distinction and advantage
of the Belt and Road initiative lies in its open-
ness and inclusiveness. “Unlike most existing
trade and economic initiatives, which are
generally exclusive, the Belt and Road initia-
tive is open to everyone,” said Wang.
Wang argued that as the initiative has at-
tracted more and more countries, even coun-
tries that held critical views have adjusted
their policies.
For example, both the US and Japan have
sent delegates to the Belt and Road Forum.
They are two of the leading countries to have
voiced concerns over the Belt and Road ini-
tiative, particularly, the AIIB, which the US
deemed a threat to the US-led financial sys-
tem, while Japan is wary of its impact on the
Japan-led Asian Development Bank.
As part of a 100-day plan and new deal
reached during the meeting between US
President Donald Trump and Xi earlier in
April in Florida, the US sent a delegation led
by Matthew Pottinger, a top adviser to the
Trump administration and National Security
Council senior director for East Asia to at-
tend the forum.
Japan also sent a delegation represented by
the ruling Liberal Democratic Party’s secre-
tary general Toshihiro Nikai, who is believed
to be close to Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo
Abe.
In an apparent effort to alleviate geopoliti-
cal concerns over the Belt and Road initiative,
Xi reiterated that China “has no intention to
interfere in other countries’ internal affairs,
export our own social system and model of
development, or impose our own will on
others,” and that China “will not resort to
outdated geopolitical manoeuvring.”
But despite the progress made during the
forum, it is unlikely that all the concerns and
reservations associated with the initiative will
disappear, especially when the inclusiveness
and openness China claims has important
political implications.
The West has long been wary about Chi-
na’s practice of attaching no political condi-
tions to economic deals it has signed with
some countries. As Xi called for countries to
“forge partnerships of dialogue with no con-
frontation and of friendship rather than alli-
ance,” a rhetoric apparently referring to the
Western-dominated alliance system around
the world, strategic and geopolitical concerns
over China’s ambitions will persist in the fore-
seeable future.
India voiced the strongest objections to theproject, publicly boycotting the meeting and
criticising the close ties of the Belt and Road
initiative to its neighbour and rival Pakistan.
“No country can accept a project that ignores
its core concerns on sovereignty and territo-
rial integrity,” said Indian Foreign Ministry
spokesman Gopal Bagley.
But there is no doubt that China is deter-
mined to turn the initiative from a blueprint
into a reality. At the conclusion of the sum-
mit, Xi announced that China will host the
second Belt and Road Forum for Interna-
tional Cooperation in 2019. The initiative
will remain a dominant theme for China’s
foreign policy in the coming years.Containers full of British products carried by
the first London-Yiwu cargo train arrive at the
Alataw Pass in northwest China’s Xinjiang Uygur
Autonomous Region, April 24, 2017Exhibits at recent exhibitions at the Forbidden
City, Beijing, show trade along the ancient silk
roads left its signature on art and culture.Photo by xinhua