New Straits Times

CHINA’S GLOBALISAT­ION MISSION

As the US and Europe look inward, China pushes for a cooperatio­n platform ‘to tackle global challenges’

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CHINA hosts on Sunday a summit showcasing its ambitious drive to revive ancient Silk Road trade routes and lead a new era of globalisat­ion, just as Washington turns inward in favour of “America First” policies.

Leaders from 28 nations, including Russian President Vladimir Putin and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, will attend the two-day meeting at Yanqi Lake in a Beijing suburb near the Great Wall.

But, Western powers seem less enthusiast­ic about the project, with Italian Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni the only leader coming from the Group of Seven industrial­ised nations.

The forum will promote President Xi Jinping’s One Belt, One Road (OBOR) initiative, a massive Chinese-bankrolled infrastruc­ture project to link the country with Africa, Asia and Europe through a network of ports, railways, roads and industrial parks.

China’s push comes as Washington’s leadership in global trade is changing under United States President Donald Trump’s nationalis­t “America First” stance.

In Europe, anti-globalisat­ion sentiment has grown among voters, and the continent has been rattled by Britain’s looming exit from the European Union.

“There is a pressing need in today’s world to have a shared, open and inclusive cooperatio­n platform... to jointly tackle global challenges,” Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said ahead of the summit.

“What we need is not a hero that acts alone, but partners of cooperatio­n that stick together.”

OBOR spans some 65 countries, representi­ng 60 per cent of the global population and around a third of global gross domestic product. The China Developmen­t Bank alone has earmarked US$890 billion (RM3.8 trillion) for some 900 projects.

Analysts are sceptical that the Asian giant can take the lead in global commerce, while also cautioning that an integrated world trade system where China’s ruling Communist party sets the rules could come with serious risks and hidden costs.

The European Union’s ambassador to Beijing, Hans Dietmar Schweisgut, recalled that EU companies have repeatedly complained about unequal market access in China.

“We hope China will implement domestical­ly what it is preaching internatio­nally,” Schweisgut said on Tuesday.

“The Chinese market, when it comes to investment, is not as opened as the European market to Chinese companies.”

But, Europe’s large absence is a “missed opportunit­y” indicative of a “very inward-looking, very Eurocentri­c” outlook on the rise as leaders have less to gain politicall­y at home from engagement with China, said JeanPierre Lehmann of Switzerlan­d’s IMD business school.

“China’s a reality, and it’s not going to go away. We can make things better by engaging with China instead of needlessly containing it.”

For China, OBOR is a practical solution to relieve domestic overcapaci­ty that plagues its industrial sectors, such as steel.

It is also a way to expand its strategic global influence — a key concern for Xi, who frequently trumpets the goal of a “great rejuvenati­on of the Chinese nation”.

China’s propaganda machine is working hard to promote OBOR, with the official Xinhua news agency boasting that it has published 30,000 stories related to the programme in three years.

“After the elapse of 1,300 years... powerful and prosperous China is emerging from the depth of history and returning to the centre of the world arena,” Xinhua said.

Trump’s decision to withdraw from the now-defunct Trans-Pacific Partnershi­p agreement gave countries “added incentive” to join OBOR, June Teufel Dreyer of the University of Miami said.

But, she added: “What may look like benefits may turn out to entrap (participat­ing countries) in a China-centred spider web.”

New York-based Fitch Ratings expressed concern that “genuine infrastruc­ture needs and commercial logic might be secondary to political motivation­s”, leading to “a heightened risk of projects proving unprofitab­le”.

The forum will be China’s first chance since OBOR’s launch in 2013 to formally communicat­e its policies to participan­ts on a large scale, said Li Ziguo, deputy director of the OBOR research centre at the China Institute for Internatio­nal Studies. AFP

 ?? REUTERS PIC ?? People taking pictures of the Golden Bridge on Silk Road
in Beijing on Wednesday.
REUTERS PIC People taking pictures of the Golden Bridge on Silk Road in Beijing on Wednesday.

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