China and Europe, located at either end of the Eurasian continent, have been natural partners since the ancient times. Over 2,000 years ago, the ancient Silk Road, connecting Europe with Asia, was bustling with merchants riding camels, with the tinkle of camel bells reaching far. By virtue of this trade route, the Eastern and Western civilizations met, fusing with and learning from each other, therefore opening up a magnificent chapter in the history of human civilization.

In 2013 the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) was proposed. Within the past six years, its vision and concept have turned into actions and results, bringing concrete, tangible benefits for peoples of participating countries. China has thus far signed more than 150 cooperation agreements with 123 countries and 29 international organizations under the framework of BRI; its trade volume with countries along the Belt and Road has exceeded $6 trillion; its cumulative outbound direct investment in Belt and Road countries has exceeded $80 billion, it paid taxes of over $2 billion to the host countries and created roughly 240,000 employment positions in the local regions. Of the 279 items on the outcome list of the first Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation in 2017, 269 items have been completed or have become routine works. It’s safe to say that the BRI has become the largest-scale and most-watched global public good, making great contributions to bolstering global cooperation and common development.

Since I became Chinese ambassador to the EU over a year ago, through close observation, I have noticed rising attention and participation of EU institutions and bodies, member states and people from all strata of society in the BRI.

To date, the Chinese government has signed BRI cooperation documents with governments of 12 EU member states. In a plan that calls for better Europe-Asia connectivity released by the European Commission in 2018, China is positioned as an important cooperation partner. In the United Kingdom, China is partnering with France to build a nuclear power plant, a stellar example of tripartite cooperation under the BRI. The German company Siemens AG is exploring the global market by joining hands with hundreds of Chinese companies to provide equipment such as steam turbines and electric generators for multiple BRI projects. The China-Europe block trains are busy traveling across the Eurasian continent. To date, a total of 13,000 trips have been made, connecting China with 49 cities in 15 European countries. As a result, delicious European food, freshly brewed beer and cheese have reached the dining tables of the Chinese during Spring Festival.

In the meantime, I have also noticed that, as China-Europe connectivity projects are steadily pushed forward, some European friends have concerns over the initiative, on account of the so-called “China’s geopolitical attempt”, quality and sustainability of projects and the fact that China may have dominant power in BRI cooperation. In this regard, I would like to share some thoughts.

To start with, the BRI is an important means for China to achieve higher-level reform and opening-up. The 40 years of reform and opening-up have profoundly changed China, with remarkable economic and social development. Looking ahead, China’s door will not be closed but will open wider and wider. The BRI is playing a critical role in furthering reform and opening-up in China. Through the initiative, China is pushing the frontier of opening-up to extend from coastal, riverside areas to less-developed inland and border regions, in an attempt to create an all-round opening up.

This is the intrinsic demand from China’s own development, and will also bring about huge development opportunities to Europe, which sits on the other side of the Belt and Road. China-Europe connectivity and cooperation will forcefully promote the progress of European integration. If we must say there’s a strategic attempt for China to push forward the BRI, it is, by unswervingly expanding opening-up, to let Chinese people live a better life and provide a better public good for mutually beneficial and win-win cooperation among all countries in the world for common development and prosperity.

Second, the BRI serves as a high-quality, high-standard and high-level international cooperation platform. Take the Hungary-Serbia railway for example. The project is completely in conformity with connectivity standards of European railways and has a great demonstration effect for boosting China-Europe infrastructure cooperation. Last year, a Chinese consortium won the bid for the construction of the Peljesac Bridge project, a major infrastructure project in Croatia. The four-lane bridge, 55 meters high and 2.4 kilometers long, is estimated to cost 420 million euros ($369 million) and the EU will provide 85 percent of the funds, testimony to the fact that the project completely tallies with local public procurement rules and EU standards.

Third, the BRI prioritizes green development, environmental protection and sustainability when pressing ahead with relevant projects. International cooperation under the BRI has always followed market principles and international rules and all Belt and Road projects have to go through well-informed feasibility studies conducted by interested parties to ensure project sustainability. For instance, under the BRI framework, Montenegro is building its first highway, greatly promoting local economy and employment. According to Montenegro Prime Minister Dusko Markovic, the north-south highway is the most important infrastructure construction project in boosting the country’s future economic growth and the BRI provides Montenegro with an opportunity to seek common development with Belt and Road countries.

Finally, the BRI safeguards multilateralism and the existing international order. In a turbulent world where unilateralism and anti-globalization are surfacing and taking a toll, the BRI insists on transparency, follows the golden rule of “extensive consultation, joint contribution and shared benefits”, and vigorously advocates multilateralism. In terms of BRI cooperation, decisions are made through wide consultation and communication among all countries involved, not by one country alone. The initiative is not meant to challenge the current international order. Rather, it seeks to firmly safeguard the rules-based global governance system. The spirit of the initiative has been included in outcome documents of important international institutions such as the United Nations, Forum on China-Africa Cooperation, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization and the Asia-Europe Meeting, which shows that the BRI has been widely acclaimed by the global community.

Hopefully, China and Europe can seize development opportunities by strengthening policy connectivity, expanding market participation, boosting tripartite cooperation and promoting more diverse cultural exchanges, so that a better bridge for Eurasian connectivity could be forged at a quicker pace to serve the interests of not only China and Europe but also the world at large.

Zhang Ming is ambassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary and head of Mission of the People’s Republic of China to the European Union.

The author contributed this article to China Watch exclusively. The views expressed do not necessarily reflect those of China Watch.

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