Global Governance Reform in the Time of Changes Unseen in a Century
The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) was proposed in 2013 by the Chinese President Xi Jinping. Thanks to years of effort, the BRI has been enriched whether in theory or in practice, or as an international consensus. In his speeches at a symposium marking the 5th anniversary of the BRI (held in August 2018) and at the Second Belt and Road Forum of International Cooperation (held in April 2019), Xi Jinping gave in-depth elaboration on the dialectic of the BRI and global governance, setting the course for their integration.
Profound Changes Unseen in a Century and New Challenges Facing Global Governance
Based on modern countries and dominated by developed countries, the modern global governance system was established against the backdrop of economic globalization after the Second World War. Within this system, the United Nations, the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, and the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (predecessor of the World Trade Organization) were important institutions through which countries in the world participated in global governance. The postwar global governance system made an outstanding contribution to upholding world peace and regional stability, promoting global economic development and improving people’s lives.
Rising unilateralism and protectionism have affected the global governance system and multilateral regime, causing “governance deficit”. Intensified frictions in international competition and raging geopolitical-maneuverings, as well as the resurgence of the coldwar mentality and tools, have all eroded the basis of trust in the international community, arising “trust deficit” in international cooperation. Volatile regional situations and rampantly-spreading terrorism have led to a “peace deficit” in human society. Moreover, unbalanced global development, as is shown in the wealth gap and North-South divide, has led to turbulence in some countries and regions and resulted in a “development deficit” in the international community.
Confronted with difficulties in global governance and the above-mentioned “four deficits”, China, as a major developing and responsible country, has offered the BRI as a public good to resolve problems facing global governance. By participating in global governance with the BRI, China has proven itself capable of providing public goods for global governance. Moreover, China has demonstrated that it has evolved from a “beneficiary” to a “facilitator” in global development. At present, the BRI has been translated from a mere proposal to a fact, from a significant blueprint to concrete actions, from an initiative of China to a consensus of the world, and to a new practice of global governance. As a plan embodying ideas and solutions that have been applied to practice, the BRI has become the wisdom China contributed to the reform of global governance.
BRI as a New Idea to Address Global Governance Deficit
As China has entered the new era,
its contribution to the world has transformed from quantity to quality. With the Belt and Road Initiative, China has provided a unique idea of a developing country to deal with the global governance deficit.
Firstly, the BRI is an important way for China to play its role as a responsible major country and to proactively participate in global governance. BRI cooperation responds to the need to reform the global governance system. BRI’s principle, achieving shared growth through discussion and collaboration, also reflects China’s concept of global governance. The BRI has filled the void of governance ideas from the perspective of developing countries. On one hand, since China is the biggest developing country, the BRI demonstrates that China has voluntarily taken up responsibilities in global governance. On the other hand, the BRI is a new approach based on the development experience of the fastest-growing developing country in the past 40 years to deal with difficulties and deficits facing global governance.
Secondly, the BRI has offered a new principle of democracy for countries to engage in global governance. The essence of BRI’s principle, achieving shared growth through discussion and collaboration, is to promote democracy in international relations from the angle of developing countries. To be specific, “discussion” shows the crux of democracy. It means that different opinions should all be considered, and countries should strive to reach a consensus. “Discussion” is the precondition for “collaboration” and “shared growth”. “Collaboration” means that global governance calls for joint efforts in which countries play different functions. It reflects “discussion” and the basis for “shared growth”. “Shared growth” is the result of “discussion” and “collaboration”, meaning that fruits of development should be allocated properly based on the contributions of various countries. Aiming for global economic development, countries should shoulder common but differentiated responsibilities, and realize growth through sharing.
Thirdly, the BRI serves as a new idea for the deeply troubled global governance. As a matter of fact, many places in China realized development thanks to improved local transportation conditions. Building roads and railways creates prosperity in all sectors. The Under-connectivity of infrastructure is a bottleneck blocking the development of developing countries. It has been proven that better-connected infrastructure could unleash developing countries’ potential enormously. Due to historical reasons, the transportation infrastructure of countries on the Eurasian continent is isolated from each other rather than inter-connected. Hence, one important goal of the BRI is to improve regional connectivity of developing countries by upgrading their infrastructure and smoothing their paths.
Fourthly, driven by innovation, the BRI aims to develop a “digital silk road” to deal with imbalanced world development and to instill new impetus to global economic growth. Currently, “Digital Gap” is an acute problem of the North-South divide. The rapid development of the digital economy and the “backwardness” of many developing countries in this domain, the “Digital Gap” may become even worse. China has made remarkable progress in developing its digital economy, and the latter is a new engine driving China’s economic growth. The “digital silk road” is designed to connect landlocked countries and coastal ones and link smaller countries with big markets through the Internet and other relevant technologies. It will be a new way to facilitate social and economic progress, address imbalances, reduce development gaps and promote common prosperity.
BRI as a Solution to Resolving New Challenges in Global Governance
The BRI upholds the principle of achieving shared growth through discussion and collaboration. Based on the development paths of various countries and encouraging dialogue, it is a new solution to deal with “trust deficit” in global governance.
Firstly, the BRI will participate in the global governance system at a deeper level by integrating with the development plans of international organizations. Instead of establishing another global governance system, the BRI aims to be aligned with the current development plans of international organizations to achieve complementarity of each other’s advantages. By November 2019, China has signed BRI cooperation documents with 30 international organizations. The Belt and Road Initiative has been incorporated into a resolution of the United Nations General Assembly. The spirit of cooperation, which is championed by the BRI, is an international consensus. In particular, the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDG 2030) has become an important plan for the BRI to be aligned with global governance.
Secondly, the BRI will help build a system of rules, which will improve the current democratic mechanism through which rules of global governance are made. As a matter of fact, the existing mechanism is imbalanced, failing to fully protect the interests of developing countries. This has directly led to the excessive power of developed countries comparing to their economic shares. A democratic system of global governance only exists in name, blocking further governance development. The BRI encourages extensive consultation so that different opinions could all be heard. While respecting the interests of developing countries, the BRI stresses its integration with existing international rules. On the basis of equality among all countries, the BRI aims to establish a set of high-standard governance rules while following the principle of democracy, so as to help improve current rules.
Thirdly, the BRI will involve various parties to jointly build a cooperation system, which will improve the level of cooperation in global governance. At present, there is not yet a way of cooperation in global governance that is widely accepted. The Belt and Road Ini
tiative, which champions extensive consultation, joint contribution and shared benefits and promotes the development of infrastructure, aims to establish cooperation platforms and offer new cooperation approaches to the world. In detail, the BRI promotes “extensive consultation” in North-South cooperation, asking developing and developed countries to draft cooperation plans on the basis of dialogue, so that interests of both sides can be protected. In SouthSouth cooperation, the BRI encourages developing countries to cooperate and seek common development interests, so as to realize shared benefits. Regarding the evaluation system of projects, all participators must benefit.
Fourthly, the BRI will involve various parties to build a high-quality system, injecting into global governance such new ideas as openness, green development, high-standard, people’s welfare and sustainable development. To promote high-quality BRI cooperation, the following aspects should be seen to. One, the market principle of openness and transparency should be observed, and the BRI should be developed in line with international norms and standards. Two, the system of IPR protection should be improved to facilitate innovation and progress of BRI cooperation. Three, the people-centered development concept should be upheld, and people-to-people connectivity should be strengthened, so as to live up to relevant global standards. Four, the sense of gain of peoples along the Belt and Road, as well as local economic development should also be considered.
Fifthly, the BRI will help intensify third-party market cooperation, providing new approaches of cooperation between developed and developing countries. Third-party market cooperation is carried out by at least two countries in a third country on the basis of extensive consultation, joint contribution and shared benefits. This approach can improve the efficiency of using foreign investment, and promote economic development in the third country more effectively. In the third-party market, BRI projects aim to boost local industrial development and improve people’s welfare. Participating countries will complement each other and carry out collaboration, so as to make sure that “1+1+1>3”.
BRI as an Important Practice to Deal with New Challenges Facing Global Governance
In the past 6 years, the BRI has become a critical path for China to participate in global governance and reforming governance system, whether as an idea or as practices, with its remarkable progress winning international influence and wide support.
By enhancing policy coordination, the BRI promotes reforms in the global governance system, which is confronted with difficulties. As a cooperation platform that upholds the principle of promoting democracy in international relations, the BRI has enabled countries to coordinate policies on various multilateral occasions, including the Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation. In this way, countries can innovate cooperation ways that are in line with current international political relations. On one hand, the international com
munity can evaluate BRI’s governance plans according to its actual progress. On the other hand, such progress may encourage the international governance system to absorb BRI’s governance ideas, so as to advance governance reforms.
The BRI promotes infrastructure connectivity and enhances interregional economic interactions. To engage in global governance at a deeper level and share development opportunities with neighboring countries, China has proposed to build six major economic corridors under the BRI, and build an interconnected network consisting of railways, roads, waterways, air routes, pipelines, and information highways. As a pillar of the BRI, the “six major economic corridors” are public goods for open and win-win cooperation which share China’s development experience and opportunities. Along these six corridors, which are aligned with relevant regional development plans, China and countries involved are upgrading infrastructures. As a result, a series of model projects have been established, each with their distinct development pattern.
The BRI upgrades financial connectivity and reduces risks in the financial governance system. By offering RMB as a settlement currency, the BRI has provided a new option. While developing the Belt and Road, China has been proactively building offshore RMB markets at various levels. People’s Bank of China has established with many BRI partner countries the RMB clearing system and relevant trade systems of national currencies. Such actions have not only provided a strong foundation for RMB internationalization, but also offered sound practices for financial and currency systems in global governance.
The BRI enhances trade connectivity, advances economic globalization and develops the trade governance system of the world. Trade liberalization is a major force driving economic globalization. For China’s part, it is trying its best to push forward trade liberalization through the BRI both at home and abroad. On one hand, China has proposed the Initiative on Promoting Unimpeded Trade Cooperation along the Belt and Road. This initiative, attracting the participation of 83 countries and international organizations, has promoted trade integration and facilitation. China has signed high-standard free trade agreements with more countries to enhance bilateral economic relations. At the same time, China is also sharing its own experience in innovation and promoting new business models such as e-commerce. These measures are going beyond physical boundaries and promoting globalization. On the other hand, China is exploring to establish free trade zones and free trade ports, advancing trade and investment liberalization and facilitation by increasing imports and reducing tariffs.
The BRI stresses people-to-people connectivity, laying a sound foundation for building a community with a shared future for humanity and for reducing “peace deficit”. In his speech at the first Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation, Xi Jinping said that “Friendship, which derives from close contact between the people, holds the key to sound state-to-state relations”. In practice, China has been carrying out cooperation with partner countries in culture, tourism and sports, so as to enhance mutual learning and mutual understanding between different cultures and civilizations. Meanwhile, through BRI infrastructure programs, China has been delivering benefits of modern civilization to peoples in less developed countries and regions.
Conclusion
Since 2013, with concerted efforts of partner countries, the BRI has evolved from a vision to a fact, and from a proposal of China to an international consensus. Now, it is one of the most popular public goods in the world. It has been proven that the BRI has responded to the need for reforming the global governance system. It is China’s wisdom and solution to upgrade the global governance system. Moreover, it is a key offered by China to address international difficulties and resolve global problems. China has been promoting BRI development while following the principle of achieving shared growth through discussion and collaboration. In this process, China is helping to address “governance deficit” by upholding fairness and justice, deal with “trust deficit” by extensive consultation and mutual accommodation, reduce “peace deficit” by working jointly with other partner countries, and remove “development deficit” by pursuing winwin benefits. Through such cooperation platforms on global governance as BRI, China has been contributing to building a community with a shared future for humanity, so as to build an open, inclusive, clean, and beautiful world that enjoys lasting peace, universal security, and common prosperity.