Introduction
More than two millennia ago, our ancestors, driven by a sincere desire for friendship, traversed plains and deserts to establish the overland Silk Road, which connected Asia, Europe, and Africa, leading the world into an era of extensive cultural exchanges. Over 1000 years later, our ancestors sailed and navigated through waves to open the maritime Silk Road, connecting East and West, initiating a new phase of closer communication between peoples. The ancient Silk Roads, spanning thousands of miles and years, were not merely trade routes but also avenues for cultural exchange, significantly contributing to human progress.
In March 2013, President Xi Jinping proposed the vision of a global community with a shared future; and in September and October of the same year, he put forward initiatives to join others in building the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road (the Belt and Road Initiative, or BRI). The Belt and Road Initiative is a creative evolution that embraces and carries the spirit of the ancient Silk Roads – two of the greatest achievements in human history and civilization. It enriches the ancient spirit with the spirit of the times and the culture of the new era, providing a platform for building a global community with a shared future.
Since its launch 10 years ago, and thanks to the joint efforts of all parties, cooperation under the Belt and Road Initiative has expanded beyond China’s borders to become an international endeavor. It has evolved from ideas to actions, from vision to reality, and from a general framework to tangible projects. It has been welcomed by the international community as a public good and a platform for cooperation, achieving concrete results. Over the past decade, cooperation under the Belt and Road Initiative has brought real gains to participating countries. It has contributed to the sound development of economic globalization, helped address global development challenges, and improved the global governance system. It has also opened a new path for all humanity to achieve modernization, ensuring that efforts to build a global community with a shared future yield real results.
Belt and Road Initiative: A Chinese Proposal, but Belonging to the Whole World
Today, the world is undergoing profound changes on a scale unseen in a century. Problems and challenges continue to threaten the progress of human civilization. In response to the changing global situation and the expectations of the international community, and considering the future and interests of all humanity, China proposed the Belt and Road Initiative. The BRI adheres to the spirit of the Silk Road, a great legacy of human civilization, connecting the past, present, and future. China launched this initiative, but it belongs to the world and benefits all humanity.
- Rooted in History, the Belt and Road Initiative Carries the Spirit of the Silk Road
Around 140 BC during the Han Dynasty, Zhang Qian, a royal envoy, journeyed west from Chang’an (present-day Xi’an in Shaanxi Province), opening an overland route connecting East and West. Centuries later, during the Tang, Song, and Yuan dynasties, the Silk Roads flourished by land and sea, facilitating trade between East and West. In the early 15th century, Zheng He, the famous Chinese navigator of the Ming Dynasty, made seven voyages to the Western Seas, boosting trade along the maritime Silk Roads.
For thousands of years, the ancient Silk Roads served as major arteries for interaction, extending across the valleys of the Nile, Tigris, Euphrates, Indus, Ganges, Yellow River, and Yangtze River. They connected the birthplaces of Egyptian, Babylonian, Indian, and Chinese civilizations, the lands of believers in Buddhism, Christianity, and Islam, and the homes of peoples of different nationalities and ethnicities. These routes increased the interconnectedness of countries in the Eurasian continent, facilitated exchanges and mutual learning between Eastern and Western civilizations, promoted regional development and prosperity, and shaped the Silk Road spirit characterized by peace, cooperation, openness, inclusiveness, mutual learning, and mutual benefit.
The millennia-old Silk Roads symbolize communication and cooperation between East and West, demonstrating that by upholding solidarity and mutual trust, equality and mutual benefit, inclusiveness and mutual learning, and win-win cooperation, countries with different ethnic groups, beliefs, and cultural backgrounds can share peace and achieve development together. The Silk Road spirit aligns with the ideal of “all nations uniting in harmony and peace” that the Chinese nation has long upheld, with the Chinese people’s principles of friendliness and good neighborliness and “helping others succeed while striving for our own success,” and with the call of the era for peace, development, and win-win cooperation.
- Responding to Reality, the Belt and Road Initiative Solves Development Problems
Development is the key to solving all problems. Economic globalization has given strong momentum to the world economy. However, economic globalization dominated by a few countries has not contributed to common development that benefits all. Instead, it has widened the wealth gap between rich and poor, between developed and developing countries, and within developed countries. Many developing countries have benefited little from economic globalization, and some have even lost their capacity for independent development, making it difficult for them to embark on the path of modernization. Some countries have practiced unilateralism, protectionism, and hegemony, hindering economic globalization and threatening a global economic recession.
It is essential to address these global problems such as slow economic growth, deficiencies in economic governance, and unbalanced economic development. It is no longer acceptable for a few countries to dominate global economic development, control economic rules, and enjoy the fruits of development.
The Belt and Road Initiative targets development not only for China but for the entire world. Economic globalization remains an irreversible trend. It is inconceivable for countries to return to a state of isolation or seclusion. However, economic globalization must undergo adjustments in form and content. It must be more open, inclusive, balanced, and beneficial to all.
China has not only benefited from economic globalization but has also contributed to it. As an active participant in economic globalization, China has achieved rapid economic growth through positive interactions with the rest of the world and has explored a unique path to modernization, expanding options for other developing countries to achieve modernization. China’s rapid economic growth and steady progress in reform and opening-up have provided strong impetus for global economic stability and growth, as well as an open world economy.
China has been a strong advocate and defender of economic globalization. The Belt and Road Initiative aligns with the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development in concept, measures, and goals. The Belt and Road Initiative, a major step taken by China, aims to promote high-quality development through higher-standard openness and share China’s development opportunities with the rest of the world. The Belt and Road Initiative is also a Chinese solution to global development problems, aiming to drive modernization in participating countries in parallel, making economic globalization more dynamic, inclusive, and sustainable, and ensuring that more fruits are shared more equitably among people worldwide.
- Future-Oriented, the Belt and Road Initiative Creates a Better World
Today, the world is increasingly moving towards multipolarity, economic globalization, and cultural diversity, becoming more information-oriented in this process. Countries are more interconnected and interdependent than ever before. It is increasingly evident that humanity is a community with a shared future where everyone’s interests are inextricably intertwined.
However, the growing deficits in peace, development, security, and governance, coupled with intertwined traditional and non-traditional security issues such as regional conflicts, arms races, food security, terrorism, cyberattacks, climate change, energy crises, major infectious diseases, and artificial intelligence problems, pose a serious threat to the beautiful planet on which all humans live.
In the face of emerging global difficulties and challenges, the human community needs new ideas, new concepts, and a more just, equitable, balanced, flexible, and effective global governance system. What kind of world to build and what path to follow to create a brighter future are issues that affect every country and every person. We must respond to the challenges of the times and make the right historical choice.
As a major developing country fulfilling its responsibilities, China keeps in mind the future and common interests of humanity. Therefore, China proposed building a global community with a shared future, aiming to create an open, inclusive, clean, and beautiful world that enjoys lasting peace, universal security, and common prosperity, painting a bright future for human development.
The ultimate goal of the Belt and Road Initiative is to help build a global community with a shared future. As an important public good for improving global governance, the initiative provides a platform for turning vision into reality. The Belt and Road Initiative includes countries in different regions, at different stages of development, and with different cultures. It transcends differences in ideologies and social systems. It enables different countries to share opportunities, achieve common development and prosperity, and build a community of shared interests, responsibilities, and destiny characterized by mutual political trust, economic integration, and cultural inclusiveness. As a practical means of building a global community with a shared future, the Belt and Road Initiative has created a new understanding and inspired the world’s imagination, contributing new ideas and new approaches to international exchanges. It will produce a more just and equitable global governance system and lead humanity to a better future.
Paving the Way Towards Common Development and Prosperity
The Belt and Road Initiative aligns with the concept of a global community with a shared future. It promotes and applies ideas relevant to the current era, the world, development, security, openness, cooperation, civilization, and governance. It provides not only a conceptual framework but also a practical roadmap for all countries to achieve common development and prosperity.
- Principles: Extensive Consultation, Joint Contribution, and Shared Benefits
The Belt and Road Initiative is based on the principles of extensive consultation, joint contribution, and shared benefits. It advocates win-win cooperation in pursuit of the common good and shared interests. It emphasizes that all countries are equal participants, contributors, and beneficiaries, and encourages economic integration, interconnected development, and sharing of achievements.
The principle of extensive consultation indicates that the Belt and Road Initiative is not a unilateral effort by China, but a cooperative endeavor involving all stakeholders. This principle promotes and activates true multilateralism, encouraging collective decision-making with full respect for the different development levels, economic structures, legal systems, and cultural traditions of various countries. It emphasizes equal participation, effective communication, collective wisdom, freedom from any political or economic preconditions, and voluntary participation to foster maximum consensus. Regardless of size, strength, and wealth, all countries participate equally and can offer opinions and proposals in bilateral and multilateral cooperation.
Under this principle, economies at different stages of development will enhance bilateral or multilateral communication, jointly identify and establish innovative cooperation mechanisms, and provide a platform for dialogue, cooperation, and participation in global governance.
The principle of joint contribution highlights that the Belt and Road Initiative is not one of China’s international aid programs or a geopolitical tool, but a cooperative effort for common development. It aims to align with existing regional mechanisms rather than replace them and leverage complementary strengths. This principle emphasizes the participation of all relevant parties, substantive coordination with the development strategies of relevant countries and regions, and identifying and utilizing their specific development potentials and comparative advantages. The goal is to collectively create new opportunities, driving forces, and space for development while achieving complementary and interactive growth by leveraging the strengths and capabilities of each party.
To promote broad participation, this principle encourages countries and enterprises to participate through various forms such as bilateral cooperation, third-party market cooperation, and multilateral cooperation, thereby creating synergy for development. This principle values market forces and promotes market-oriented operations to advance the interests and meet the expectations of all relevant parties. In this context, enterprises play a central role as key actors, while the government’s responsibility lies in building platforms, establishing mechanisms, and providing policy guidance. China’s primary role in Belt and Road cooperation stems from its economic scale, market size, infrastructure construction experience, ability to produce low-cost, high-quality, and high-performance equipment, and its comprehensive strengths in innovation and technology.
Conclusion
The Belt and Road Initiative has given new life to a history of cultural exchanges spanning over two millennia, inspiring over 150 countries with enthusiasm to realize new dreams. In the ten years since its launch, cooperation under the Belt and Road Initiative has brought remarkable and profound change to the world and has become a major landmark in human history.
The Belt and Road Initiative is a long-term, cross-border, and systematic global project in the 21st century. It has successfully taken its first step on a long journey. Continuing from this new starting point, the Belt and Road Initiative will demonstrate greater creativity and vitality, become more open and inclusive, and generate new opportunities for both China and the rest of the world.
In the future, the Belt and Road Initiative will face new difficulties. But as long as all relevant parties unite their forces, work together, and persevere, we will be able to overcome these problems and elevate the level of extensive consultation, joint contribution, and shared benefits to new heights. Cooperation will flourish, and the Belt and Road Initiative can look forward to a brighter future.
China stands ready to work with other countries to pursue closer and more fruitful cooperation under the Belt and Road Initiative, implement the Global Development Initiative, the Global Security Initiative, and the Global Civilization Initiative, and build an open, inclusive, clean, and beautiful world that enjoys lasting peace, universal security, and common prosperity. Our goals are to pass on the torch of peace from generation to generation, sustain development, ensure the flourishing of civilizations, and build a global community with a shared future.