Experts: China maps out path to global progress

Xi’s proposals offer world a new way forward in overcoming major international challenges

Experts across the world say the global initiatives proposed by President Xi Jinping are very “timely” and “critical” for global development and economic growth, given that geopolitical tensions are rising and the international economic structure is changing.

Due to the impact of the COVID19 pandemic, regional conflicts, major-country rivalries and food and energy crises are emerging simultaneously. While the global economy is struggling to recover, developing countries face daunting challenges in achieving the United Nations’ 2030 Sustainable Development Goals.

During the Boao Forum for Asia in April last year, Xi proposed the Global Security Initiative, with indivisible security as the important principle in order to foster a new type of security that replaces confrontation, alliance and a zero-sum approach with dialogue.

Also, at the general debate of the 76th Session of the UN General Assembly in September 2021, Xi proposed the Global Development Initiative, which is aimed at building a global community of development. Since then, the GDI has received support from more than 100 countries and many international organizations including the UN. More than 60 countries have joined the Group of Friends of the GDI.

Lawrence Loh, director of the Center for Governance and Sustainability at National University of Singapore, said: “The global initiatives proposed by President Xi are most timely and critical for world progress. It is precisely because the international economic architecture has changed and geopolitical tensions are rising that such initiatives are needed to set the world back on the path of shared recovery in the post-pandemic era.”

Loh said that the GDI is a compelling economic initiative focusing on the development imperative, and countries are attracted to it as there are clear benefits such as infrastructural, technological and market advancements. “Most important of all, the commitments are clear, including the rounds of funding offered by the lead country of China,” he added.

Christopher Bovis, a professor of international business law at the University of Hull in the United Kingdom, said that these initiatives “offer credible proposals to global governance”.

He said that the initiatives also provide “credible evidence” of China’s proposals to reform global governance in an environment that increasingly points to “the inadequacy of international instruments for security and trade cooperation”.

Chris Rudd, deputy vice-chancellor and head of the Singapore campus of Australia’s James Cook University, said: “Any attempts by serious global players to bring about international dialogue and better targeted development aid are to be welcomed at a time when international tensions are rising and entire regions are potentially facing collateral damage due to climate change and conflict-related supply chain disruptions.”

Rudd said Xi’s global initiatives not only provide a platform for more sustainable growth, but will also help to strengthen international security by improving controls over money laundering.

While individual citizens in the global south might not be likely to recognize the policy “brands” proposed by China, such as the GDI and the Belt and Road Initiative, Rudd said they certainly respond to lifechanging infrastructure projects in fields such as healthcare, transportation and telecommunications.

“In many regions, and especially in African countries, China is regarded as the preferred international development partner due to its rapid delivery, its historically benign attitude to debt restructuring and the well-established principle of mutuality in partnership building,” he said.

Stephen Perry, chairman of The 48 Group Club — an independent business network committed to promoting trade and cultural links between the UK and China — said that with the changes happening globally, “we needed a new way for the world to relate and work together and President Xi’s ideas are the only ones on the table. They are simple, well-detailed and supported.”

Perry welcomed Xi’s call to reform the global economic governance system, adding that only when it adapts to new dynamics in the international economic architecture can the global governance system sustain global growth.

“For too long, the world has been beset by the ‘North-South’ divide between developed and developing countries, and this is severely compounded by the ‘EastWest’ divide in ideologies and values, said Loh, from National University of Singapore.

“A good model of fair and equitable governance undergirding the global economy is overdue. … It must unify the countries and yet respect the differences between these countries — this is the only path for global progress to be made.”