Xi Jinping slams West, lauds China's BRI initiative

As he welcomed attendees to the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) meeting in Beijing on Wednesday, Chinese President Xi Jinping criticised Western attempts to lessen reliance on the Chinese economy and cautioned against decoupling from China. In addition, Xi praised his ambitious 10-year-old plan to develop international energy and infrastructure networks that would link Asia with Africa and Europe via land and water, claiming that “blueprints turned into real projects.” Many heads of state, most notably Xi’s “dear friend” Russian President Vladimir Putin, attended the meeting together with representatives from more than 130 countries, many of which were from the Global South. “We stand against unilateral sanctions, economic coercion, decoupling and supply chain disruption,” Xi told more than 1,000 delegates gathered in an ornate conference room in the Great Hall of the People west of Tiananmen Square. As Xi gave his opening remarks, Putin and other world leaders sat in the front row with top Politburo members from China. According to Xi, “our lives will not be better and our development will not be faster if we view the development of others as a threat and economic interdependence as a risk.” Xi argued against Western attempts to lessen reliance on the Chinese economy. Leaders in the West are adamant that their intention is to “de-risk,” not “decouple,” from China and claim that this is because they want to diversify supply chains that have grown unduly reliant on the second-largest economy in the world. The urgency to reduce their reliance on China has increased in response to China’s threats against Taiwan and the trade disruptions of the epidemic years. Although BRI at first set out to connect China to Western Europe, senior EU figures were missing. The sole head of state present from the bloc was Hungary’s populist Prime Minister Viktor Orban. Other notable attendees included the Afghan Taliban administration’s commerce minister Haji Nooruddin Azizi. “China has more interest right now in developing Afghanistan at this moment, so we are more engaged with China. The Chinese have more interest in economic affairs, that’s why we’re here,” Azizi told a gaggle of reporters at the ceremony. According to observers, Western criticism of Xi’s ambitious objectives is due to concerns about how they will increase China’s worldwide power. China has occasionally taken offence at criticism of the BRI, claiming that it is motivated by anti-Chinese prejudice and a desire to slow down the country’s progress while ignoring what it claims are sincere good intentions. Additionally, analysts claim that part of China’s infrastructure lending through the initiative has burdened developing nations with debt they are unable to repay. In a speech, Indonesian President Joko Widodo stressed that BRI initiatives “must not complicate (countries’) fiscal conditions,” despite his nation owing China more than $20 billion. Putin hailed the BRI in a speech that came after Xi’s and urged international investment in the Northern Sea route, which he claimed could expand trade between the east and west. Several European officials left the hall as Putin took to the stage. In a three-hour meeting with Putin outside the conference, Xi suggested that the two of them look into expanding their regional cooperation and collaborating in strategically important developing industries. “China hopes that the China-Mongolia-Russia natural gas pipeline project will make substantive progress as soon as possible,” Xi said according to a state media readout. State broadcaster CCTV said that both presidents had “in-depth” discussions regarding the Middle East situation without providing any additional information. Putin was escorted by officers carrying the so-called nuclear briefcase, which can be used to order a nuclear strike, as it was captured on camera after the meeting. By shifting away from expensive initiatives like dams and towards high-tech initiatives like digital finance and e-commerce platforms, Xi is making the Belt and Road more compact and environmentally friendly. The goal, according to analysts, is to support a larger movement for a multipolar world order that gives the Global South more agency rather than one that is dominated by Washington and its allies. The BRI has also shifted its attention to topics like artificial intelligence and climate change as Xi attempts to use it to export Chinese ideas about governance and build consensus around Chinese norms and its development model, analysts say. By promising to “deepen cooperation in green infrastructure, energy, and transportation” and “put forward global initiative for artificial intelligence governance,” Xi reaffirmed these tendencies on Wednesday. China’s foreign ministry declared after Xi’s speech that the country would work to establish a UN body to oversee AI. Beijing also said it opposed the “malicious obstructing” of other nations’ AI development, which was probably a reference to the Biden administration’s attempts to stop the export of cutting-edge AI chips to China. The BRI was “creating impact for some of the participating countries,” according to a European business representative who asked to remain unnamed out of respect, and “I think there is some truth to some of the speeches about improving livelihood and connectivity.” (With agency inputs)