What BRI’s High-Quality Development Tells the International Community
As the BRI has brought tangible benefits to countries involved and their citizens, it has become clear that the BRI is an opportunity for common development instead of a geopolitical tool.
SINCE the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) was first proposed nearly six years ago, it has been well received globally. So far, 126 countries and 29 international organizations have signed agreements with China for joint construction. Meanwhile, the critics against the BRI among certain media outlets, think tanks, and nongovernmental organizations in some countries have also increased, voicing pessimism and misgivings about it. With debt trap and geopolitical strategy accusations, they exploit sensitive issues among the public in BRI countries concerning sovereignty, energy, and resources to smear the program. As the BRI has brought tangible benefits to the countries involved and their citizens, it becomes clear to increasingly more people worldwide that the BRI creates a path leading to wellbeing instead of a trap of debts, and is an opportunity for common development instead of a geopolitical tool.
Driving Global Economic Growth
Catering to the demand for reforming the global governance system, the BRI adopts a more open and inclusive mode of international economic cooperation, blazes a new trail for improving global governance mechanisms, and gives impetus to global economic growth.
Since the launch of the program, the flow of goods between China and other BRI countries has steadily increased. The opening of China-Europe express freight train service, the growth of e-commerce, and the success of the first China International Import Expo (CIIE) have all further released the potential of trade among BRI countries. During the 2013-2018 period, the
amount of trade in goods between China and its BRI partners grew from US $1.04 trillion to US $1.27 trillion, and its share in the total value of China’s foreign trade climbed from 25 percent to 27.4 percent.
Vietnam and Egypt are two typical examples. The UN’s statistics show that from 2013 to 2017, Vietnam’s commodity exports to China registered an average annual growth of 28 percent, more than doubling its overall yearly export growth (13 percent). In the case of Egypt, its sales to China increased at an annual rate of 5 percent, bucking the trend of negative growth in its overall exports during the period. As a result, China’s contribution to the two countries’ foreign trade expanded by 6.5 percent and 0.7 percent respectively. During the same period, Vietnam’s annual GDP growth was 6.5 percent on average, and per capita GDP enjoyed a growth of US $341. In Egypt, the GDP grew at an annual rate of 4 percent, and per