Keeping on track with China
Europe must forge closer bonds to seize opportunities amid Beijing’s domestic and global initiatives
Last October, I visited China for the first time. I visited Beijing and Shanghai, and traveled to parts of Guizhou province and the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region. I saw a modern, progressive, and rapidly advancing country that invests heavily in efforts to preserve the fruits of poverty alleviation, environmental protection, and the socioeconomic development of its least-developed regions.
China has pursued these national development programs in concert with a policy of international cooperation. Through the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), which was launched in 2013, China is cooperating with more than 150 countries and 30 international organizations to help build an intercontinental network of railways, ports, and airports, to the benefit of the people of all partner countries, regardless of their size and economic power.
Europe would do well to recognize the opportunities arising from China’s global initiatives.
The foreign, trade and fiscal policies of most European governments have long exploited the natural resources and labor of the Global South, mightily contributing to the global economic and social inequality as well as climate injustice.
At the same time, economic and social inequality and poverty has increased in some of Europe’s wealthiest countries in terms of per capita GDP.
Essential goods and services including food, decent housing, quality healthcare and education, and electricity and gas have become unaffordable for a large number of Europeans.
China, on the other hand, has lifted about 800 million people out of poverty during the past more than four decades, including about 100 million between 2012 and 2020. In fact, China eradicated extreme poverty 10 years before the goal set by the UN’s 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
Poverty eradication, infrastructure development and ecological initiatives are achievements that, for a country of 1.4 billion people, set the stage for enormous opportunities for cooperation and exchanges on the economic, educational and cultural levels.
Sadly, due to the distortions of Europe’s mainstream media in their reporting on China and the commitments of European governments to policies of aggression, European countries miss these valuable opportunities. By aligning with the United States’ foreign policy while stubbornly clinging to colonial policies, European governments are isolating themselves internationally.
This is most obvious in relation to the Ukraine crisis, with most European governments choosing the warpath rather than advocating for peace negotiations that take into equal account the legitimate claims of all countries involved.
Sweden and Finland, two former neutral countries, have joined the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, and my own country, Switzerland, is slowly giving up its neutrality to align more closely with NATO. European governments have greatly increased their arms expenditure since 2022, further reducing social services and investment in public infrastructure.
In contrast, the countries of the Global South, striving to move forward after freeing themselves from the shackles of colonialism and underdevelopment, look to China’s example when it comes to successfully implementing the UN 2030 Agenda and its 17 Sustainable Development Goals domestically and internationally, including eradicating poverty, ending hunger, providing quality healthcare and education, protecting the environment, building sustainable cities and communities, and promoting worldwide partnerships and collaboration to achieve the SDGs so people across the world live in peace.
By following the US’ lead of confrontation with and aggression toward China, Europe will only push the continent’s people on to a foundering ship, while the tide of the Global South’s aspirations for a better future continues to rise.
Economic and political cooperation between Europe and China based on “mutual respect for sovereignty and territorial integrity, mutual nonaggression, mutual non-interference in internal affairs, equality and mutual benefit, and peaceful coexistence”, will not only be highly beneficial to the working people in Europe but is also necessary to promote peace and development for all humanity.