Tenth Anniversary of Silk Road Economic Belt

Sept. 7, 2023, 2022 (EIRNS)—On the occasion of the tenth anniversary of China’s President Xi Jinping unveiling the “Silk Road Economic Belt,” which together with the “21st Century Maritime Silk Road” are now known as the Belt and Road Initiative, or BRI, we present excerpts from contemporaneous coverage from China News (as posted by China’s Consulate in Toronto).

At the time, China had proven, over more than two decades, that they could systematically pull hundreds of millions of Chinese out of severe poverty, and they surprised the defenders of poverty by offering to export their economic model.

“On Sept. 7, 2013, President Xi Jinping made a speech titled ‘Promote People-to-People Friendship and Create a Better Future’ at Kazakhstan’s Nazarbayev University. He spoke highly of the traditional friendship between China and Kazakhstan, and gave a comprehensive elaboration of China’s policy of good-neighborly and friendly cooperation toward countries in Central Asia. He proposed to join hands building a Silk Road Economic Belt with innovative cooperation mode and to make it a grand cause benefitting people in regional countries along the route....

“We should turn the advantage of political relations, the geographical advantage, and the economic complementary advantage into advantages for practical cooperation and for sustainable growth, so as to build a community of interests. We should create new brilliance with a more open mind and a broader vision to expand regional cooperation. By strengthening the cooperation between the Shanghai Cooperation Organization and the Eurasian Economic Community, we can gain a greater space for development.

“Xi Jinping proposed that in order to make the economic ties closer, mutual cooperation deeper and space of development broader between the Eurasian countries, we can innovate the mode of cooperation and jointly build the ‘Silk Road Economic Belt’ step by step to gradually form overall regional cooperation.

“First, to strengthen policy communication. Countries in the region can communicate with each other on economic development strategies, and make plans and measures for regional cooperation through consultations. Second, to improve road connectivity. To open up the transportation channel from the Pacific to the Baltic Sea and to gradually form a transportation network that connects East Asia, West Asia, and South Asia. Third, to promote trade facilitation. All the parties should discuss the issues concerning trade and investment facilitation and make appropriate arrangements. Fourth, to enhance monetary circulation. All the parties should promote the realization of exchange and settlement of local currency, increase the ability to fend off financial risks and make the region more economically competitive in the world. Fifth, to strengthen people-to-people exchanges. All the parties should strengthen the friendly exchanges between their peoples to promote understanding and friendship with each other....”