Daily Times

Chinese philosophy may be characterised as rational, vivid, fundamentally human and morality-oriented pragmatism, and Xi Jingping’s vision seems to be the real manifestation of it.

The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) — China’s international stimulus package; aims to reshape global economic setup, grounded in the ideas of cooperation, rather than competition. Beijing’s BRI is an ambitious effort to improve regional cooperation and connectivity on a trans-continental scale. The initiative was unveiled by Chinese President Xi Jinping in late 2013, and was thereafter promoted by Premier Li Keqiang during state visits to Asia and Europe It has two primary components: the over-land Silk Road Economic Belt (SREB), and the sea-based 21st-century Maritime Silk Road (MSR). Together, they form the “belt” and “road”.

President Xi on August 28, 2018, underlined thorough and solid cooperation under BRI to benefit the people in countries involved and build a community with a shared future for humanity. Xi, who is also the General Secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and Chairman of the Central Military Commission, was addressing a symposium held in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, on the eve of BRI’s fifth anniversary.

“The broad support for the BRI shows aspiration from countries involved developing countries in particular, for peace and development,” Xi said, noting that the initiative is for economic cooperation, instead of a geopolitical alliance or military league, and it is an open and inclusive process rather than an exclusive bloc or a ‘China club’.

“It does not differentiate between countries on the basis of ideology nor plays the zero-sum game. As long as countries are willing to join, they are welcome,” Xi stated.

Moreover, China’s strongman urged for determination to uphold dialogue and consultation, joint contribution, shared benefits, win-win cooperation, exchange and mutual learning and to promote political mutual trust, economic integration, people-to-people exchanges with the Belt and Road countries, in order to advance the initiative step by step, producing achievements. According to him, the initiative is meant to help China gain a bigger footprint in the globalised world, improve global economic governance, and promote common development and prosperity. The next priority of jointly advancing the initiative is to realise its high-quality development.

Contemporary politics should plug into modern necessities which includes; politics of connectivity, cooperation and inter-dependence; evident by what Russian philosopher Peter Kropotkin’s once said; “Competition is the law of jungle, but cooperation is the law of civilisation”

On the occasion, the President also impressed upon to focus all the energies to push for progress in Belt and Road projects, especially those delivering real benefits to local people. Work should be done to boost exchanges in areas of education, science, technologies, culture, sports, tourism, health and archaeology. The seriousness of the oratory can be judged by the fact that under this initiative, China has already set up 81 education institutions and projects as well as 35 cultural centres in countries along the BRI. This kind of development is sweeping through BRI route across borders.

The global community is quite conscious about the potential of the BRI that is to establish connection among 65 countries across three continents with China which would influence the lives of 4.4 billion people.

Last year, Beijing hosted the first-ever Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation, attended by state and government leaders of 29 countries. More than 1,600 participants came from over 140 countries and 80 international organisations. This shows how receptive the world is to this unique initiative that has sort of become a new mantra for development and would lubricate the global economy to a great extent.

But the world will be watching over the coming year and comparing the Chinese and Western models. For Americans and Europeans, China’s system holds little appeal. For almost everyone else, the China model offers a plausible alternative. With Xi ready and willing to offer that alternative, this is an unprecedented initiative that leaves the world in awe, as no one knows for sure how the unfolding of this plan may change the trajectory of set global economic models.

Having said that; it is time that the economic concept of perfect competition is reconsidered and replaced with perfect cooperation, in the wake of contemporary dynamics. Regional connectivity is vital for the sustainable economic growth in the 21st century. Therefore, regional actors need to collaborate instead of counter-balancing or competing for their shared security and economic prosperity. Without joint cooperation and economic interdependence, sustainable progress in South Asia, West Asia, Central Asia, and Euro Asia is unmanageable.

In our contemporary times, medieval politics will soon become redundant. The future belongs to economics and connectivity. Thus, contemporary politics should plug into modern necessities which includes; politics of connectivity, cooperation and inter-dependence; evident by what Russian philosopher Peter Kropotkin’s once said; “Competition is the law of jungle, but cooperation is the law of civilisation”.

The writer is a Research Fellow/Program Officer at Centre for Research and Security Studies              (CRSS)/Afghan Studies Centre (ASC), Islamabad. He tweets @saddampide

Published in Daily Times, September 6^th 2018.