Chinese President Xi Jinping (center) together with other state leaders attending the Second Belt and Road Forum

Chinese President Xi Jinping gave a keynote speech at the Second Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation, held in Beijing from April 25 to 27. It is the diplomatic highlight of the year for China, with 37 state and government leaders in attendance, along with 5,000 other representatives from 150 countries. Cooperation agreements worth more than USD64 billion were signed at the CEO conference.

Leaders attending the Forum included Russian President Vladimir Putin, Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte, Swiss President Ueli Maurer, Czech President Milos Zeman and Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad. Spain was represented by Foreign Minister Josep Borrell Fontelles and the UK by Chancellor of the Exchequer Philip Hammond.

The EU’s strategy for connecting Europe and Asia is greener and more sustainable than China’s BRI, but there remains scope for the two sides to work together, European Commission Vice President Maros Sefcovic said. He told Chinese Premier Li Keqiang that Europe was happy to boost trade with China – currently worth about €1.6 billion a day – and cooperation on the Belt and Road, as long as Beijing dealt with the concerns of European businesses. Although the U.S. federal government is boycotting the BRI, California’s Lieutenant Governor Eleni Kounalakis said she was attending the event primarily to talk about climate change as she urged participants to prioritize the issue, and consider how the Belt and Road Initiative can drive positive action for this global threat.

President Xi did not pledge fresh capital to fund China’s ambitious “Belt and Road Initiative” and focused instead on “co-development”. Compared with the inaugural 2017 event, Xi’s speech was shorter and contained fewer concrete proposals. Instead, he focused more on deflecting criticism and doubts about the initiative. The Chinese President promised that the yuan would not be devalued, but kept stable within a reasonable range. He also said China would strengthen macro-economic policy coordination with other major economies. China does not intentionally seek trade surpluses, and the nation is willing to import more foreign agricultural products and services for more balanced trade. “China pays high regard to the implementation of bilateral and multilateral economic and trade agreements it has signed with other parties,” he said.

Xi said China would enforce cooperation with the international community on protection of intellectual property rights, and that China would end forced technology transfers, protect trademarks and trade secrets, and combat IP theft. China will hold its second import expo in November in Shanghai, Xi said, creating a platform for foreign businesses to enter the Chinese market. He said China would further cut tariffs and lower non-tariff barriers. Flows of commodities, capital, technology, and people were vital for economic growth. Xi said China would expand market access, slash negative lists to allow more foreign-controlled and wholly foreign-owned businesses in more sectors, and adopt supporting regulations to implement foreign investment laws and supply-side structural reform. The BRI would benefit “all of its participants” – not only China, Xi said as reported by the South China Morning Post.

Prior to the Forum, the Belt and Road News Network First Council Meeting was held in Beijing. President Xi Jinping called on media outlets from the countries participating in the Belt and Road Initiative to tell the stories of the initiative in a way that shapes favorable public opinion for BRI cooperation. Xi said the BRI countries needed to uphold the spirit of the Silk Road and strive to build the initiative into a road leading to peace, prosperity, openness, green development and innovation, and one that brings together different cultures.

Two-way investment between China and economies related to the Belt and Road Initiative exceeded USD130 billion between 2013 and 2018. China’s direct investment in BRI-related countries grew by 5.2% annually on average to surpass USD90 billion between 2013 and 2018, Song Lihong, an official in the Ministry of Commerce’s Comprehensive Department, said at a news conference. In the same period, China had received a total of USD40 billion in inbound investment from BRI countries. In five years, the value of the projects completed by Chinese companies in BRI economies amounted to USD400 billion, while the trade in goods between China and BRI-related economies exceeded USD6 trillion in the same period, an average annual growth of 4%. Ma Yu, Researcher at the Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation, said the BRI provides a new impetus for the recovery of the world economy. The improvement in infrastructure, and digital-related manufacturing brought by the BRI will restore the development capacity of the world economy and bring new opportunities for partnerships between Chinese and local companies.

63% of Chinese corporations indicated that they plan to increase overseas investment by more than 10% in the next two years, and that the Belt and Road Initiative is key to that enthusiasm, according to a new survey by Baker McKenzie. The report, “The Age of Hypercomplexity,” is based on a survey of 600 C-suite and director-level executives in Australia, China, India, Japan, Malaysia and Singapore. The survey found 81% of respondents expected the influence of China to increase most in the next five years. More than 80% of 200 respondents on the Chinese mainland and in Hong Kong see projects related to the Belt and Road Initiative as either fundamentally or hugely important to their business.

The Office of the Leading Group for Promoting the BRI published a report elaborating on the progress, contributions and prospects of the Belt and Road Initiative. The Belt and Road Initiative is an initiative for peaceful development and economic cooperation, rather than a geopolitical or military alliance, said the report. “It is a process of open, inclusive and common development, not an exclusionary bloc or a ‘China club. It neither differentiates between countries by ideology nor plays the zero-sum game,” according to the report.

So far, 126 countries and 29 international organizations have signed on to the BRI. The latests ones are Equatorial Guinea, Liberia, Luxembourg, Jamaica, Peru, Italy, Barbados, Cyprus and Yemen.