context: China is considering holding the third Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) International Cooperation Summit Forum in 2023, which marks the tenth anniversary of the BRI. Ta Kung Pao (Dagong bao) reporter Ge Chong 葛冲 quotes from interviews as part of a preview of the Two Sessions (due to open on 4 March 2023).
The BRI (Belt and Road Initiative) is claimed to represent the interests of a majority of people, enabling lesser-developed countries along the route to share the dividends of economic globalisation.
Beijing has signed over 200 memoranda of understanding on jointly building the BRI with 150 countries and 32 international organisations:
- the trade in goods between the PRC and BRI states in 2022 alone reached CNY13.8tn ($2.18tn)
- PRC firms had invested CNY400bn in cooperation zones in those states by the end of 2022, creating 421,000 local jobs.
Bai Ming 白明, deputy director of the International Market Research Institute, Research Institute, Ministry of Commerce, claims the BRI's decade of joint construction has created a reliable 'friendship circle' for China, strengthening the global interconnected network and rebuilding economic, trading and cultural exchanges, as well as bridges of cooperation.
In an understated reference to widely reported discontent in BRI projects, interviewees urged BRI work to
- 'identify the needs of BRI states'
- focus on high standards, sustainability and popular welfare
China-EU economic and trade relations are expected to improve further, as they do not have geopolitical conflicts in essence, and EU nations do not view China from the perspective of strategic competition, according to Da Wei 达巍, director of Tsinghua University's Strategy and Security Research Centre.
Sino-US relations are facing opportunities in the new year, argues Wang Yong 王勇, a professor of Peking University’s School of International Relations and director of its Centre for American Studies
- the US will be more disturbed by political factors internal to the US, especially on the Taiwan issue
- stronger communication between the PRC and US is needed to manage and control the crisis.