The Belt and Road is Becoming a Reality from a Concept Under President Xi Jinping’s Leadership
Five years ago, President Xi Jinping proposed the cooperation initiative to build the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road respectively as he visited Kazakhstan and Indonesia. Over the past five years, the Belt and Road initiative has materialized. It has extended the road of economy and trade to the hearts of people.
Since August 10, CCTV News has been issuing the series report of Belt and Road Initiative in Five Years, portraying the practice of many countries that have materialized this initiative from a concept into actions and from a vision into a reality. In five years, the building of the Belt and Road has yielded fruitful results and injected inexhaustible impetus into the common development and prosperity of the world.
President Xi values the Belt and Road initiative a lot. On major domestic and international occasions, he has been talking about and elaborated on this initiative time and again and earnestly pressed ahead with its in-depth materialization and long-term implementation.
How far has the Belt and Road reached?
In the past five years, President Xi Jinping has nearly set foot in everywhere around the world. Central Asia, South Asia, West Asia, North Africa, Central and Eastern Europe...
No matter where he is, advocacy of building the Road and Belt will be an important part during his overseas trips. He has been adding vivid footnotes to this concept.
More than 2000 years ago, the Silk Road connected China with the distant Europe; and 2000 years later, the building of the Belt and Road will bright about great opportunities for the common development of China and countries along the route.
——On October 21, 2015, President Xi Jinping’s speech at UK-China Business Summit
China will actively advance the Belt and Road initiative and contribute to the interconnectivity of the Asia Pacific based on the spirit of extensive consultation, joint contribution and shared benefits. China will strengthen its cooperation with relevant parties on development strategies and partnership initiatives so as to realize synergy effects.
——On November 20, 2016, President Xi Jinping’s speech at the first session of the 24th APEC Economic Leaders’ Meeting
Latin America is the natural extension of the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road. China will step up cooperation with Latin America on areas including coordination of China-Latin America development strategies within the framework of the Belt and Road, promote common development and foster China-Latin America community of common destiny.
——On May 17, 2017, President Xi Jinping’s meeting with Argentina’s president Mauricio Macri
China and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) are partners by nature for jointly building the Belt and Road. China considers the UAE as an important pivot country along the route and thinks highly of the Crown Prince’s idea of “rejuvenating the Silk Road”. Both sides should step up coordination of development strategies and communication of industrial policies, elaborately plan for and operate their Belt and Road flagship projects, and promote the economic development of the Middle East Gulf region.
——On July 20, 2018, President Xi Jinping’s meeting with UAE Vice President and Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum and Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan
The development of China will create more opportunities for Africa and that of Africa will inject new impetus to China’s development in turn.
——On July 21, 2018, President Xi Jinping’s meeting with President of Senegal Macky Sall
How wide has the Belt and Road expanded?
As a new platform for development and cooperation around the globe, the Belt and Road initiative has promoted China not only to go to the world and restructure the opening-up pattern but also to share its development opportunities with countries and regions along the route and let them board China’s fast train of development. The ancient Silk Road has sprung to life again, the Silk Road spirit of “solidarity and mutual trust, equality and mutual benefit, inclusiveness and mutual learning, and cooperation for win-win results” has gained new connotations, and forging a community of common destiny has become new international consensus
New space: interconnectivity opens up new space for communication
China upholds the spirit of extensive consultation, joint contribution and shared benefits, puts boosting the connectivity of policies, infrastructure, trade, finance and people into practice, fosters new international cooperation platforms, add new impetus for common development, and let the Belt and Road benefit more countries and people.
——On April 11, 2018, President Xi Jinping’s meeting with incumbent and incoming members of the Board of Directors of the Boao Forum for Asia
New model: accelerating integration releases great potential for economic cooperation
Chinese enterprises have invested for over 50 billion US dollars in countries along the Belt and Road and a series of major projects have taken roots and thrived, which have driven the economic development of these countries and created a large number of job opportunities. It can be said that, the Belt and Road initiative, originating from China though, is benefiting the world.
——On January 17, 2017, President Xi Jinping’s keynote speech at the Opening Plenary of the 2017 Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum
New power: mutual benefit and win-win solutions inject new power into building the community of shared future for mankind
We observe the principle of extensive consultation, joint contribution and shared benefits for building the Belt and Road, we are guided by the Silk Road spirit of peace and cooperation, openness and inclusiveness, mutual learning and mutual benefit and we aim to foster a community of common destiny and a community of shared interests for cooperation, which are widely recognized by countries along the Belt and Road.
——On June 22, 2016, President Xi Jinping’s speech in the Legislative Chamber in Uzbekistan
Connotation under new era: chase the dream together to benefit more countries and people
Under new historical conditions, the Belt and Road initiative we put forward is aimed to inherit and carry forward the Silk Road spirit, combine China’s development with that of other countries along the Belt and Road and the Chinese dream with the dreams of the people in those countries, and imbues new connotations of the times to the ancient Silk Road.
——On April 29, 2016, President Xi Jinping’s presiding over the 31st group study of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee
How fruitful is the Belt and Road?
Over the past five years, over 100 countries and international organizations have signed cooperation documents with China on jointly building the Belt and Road. At the Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation last May, five categories of 279 outcomes were achieved and most of them have already been or can be transformed into regular practice. A large number of key and demonstrative projects have been carried out, which have brought stronger sense of gain to the people of countries along the Belt and Road.
We will join hands to build the blue economic passage and maritime cooperation center, advance the development of marine industry and boost the public service capacity of the sea. Efforts should be made to jointly build the Belt and Road Spatial Information Corridor, establish aerospace partnerships and promote China’s BeiDou navigation system and meteorological satellite remote sensing technology to serve the development of the Arab world.
——On July 10, 2018, President Xi Jinping’s speech at the Opening Ceremony of the Eighth Ministerial Meeting of the China-Arab States Cooperation Forum
China and Russia will cooperate on developing Arctic shipping routes, jointly build the Polar Silk Road and implement relevant interconnectivity projects.
——On July 4, 2017, President Xi Jinping’s meeting with the Prime Minister of Russia Medvedev
Efforts should be made to further cooperation between both sides on finance and productivity within the framework of the Belt and Road. China supports the building of Zhengzhou-Luxembourg Air Silk Road.
——On June 14, 2017, President Xi Jinping’s meeting with the Prime Minister of Luxembourg Xavier Bettel
We will continue to pursue innovation-driven development, strengthen cooperation in frontier areas such as digital economy, artificial intelligence (AI), nanotechnology (NT) and quantum computer, advance the development of big data, cloud computing and smart city, and pave the way to the 21st Digital Silk Road.
——On May 14, 2017, President Xi Jinping’s speech at the Opening Ceremony of the Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation
China will work with countries along the Belt and Road to build the Belt and Road cooperation network of mutual benefit, foster new cooperation patterns, explore multi-dimensional cooperation platforms, advance projects in key areas and create the Silk Road of Green Development, Silk Road of Health Cooperation, Silk Road of Innovation and Silk Road of Peace, and benefit the countries and people along the routes.
——On July 25, 2016, President Xi Jinping’s letter of congratulation to the 2016 Media Cooperation Forum on Belt and Road Initiative