"Belt and Road" White Paper Released: Solid Progress in Rules and Standards Alignment, Continuous Improvement in Standardization Cooperation Level
Release Date:
2023-10-12 10:12
Source:
Xinhua News Agency
On the 10th, the State Council Information Office released the white paper "Jointly Building the Belt and Road: A Major Practice in Building a Community with a Shared Future for Mankind." It mentioned China and the Belt and Road partner countries have "steadily advanced the alignment of rules and standards," continuously improving the level of standardization cooperation. As of the end of June 2023, China has signed 107 standardization cooperation documents with standardization organizations from 65 countries including Pakistan, Russia, Greece, Ethiopia, Costa Rica, as well as international and regional organizations, promoting international cooperation in standards across multiple fields such as civil aviation, climate change, agricultural food, building materials, electric vehicles, oil and gas pipelines, logistics, small hydropower, marine, and surveying and mapping. The Belt and Road Standards Information Platform is operating well, with standardization overview information covering 149 partner countries. It provides precise search services for standardization catalog information from 59 countries and 6 international and regional standardization organizations, building a bridge for standard interconnection among partner countries.
The full text is as follows:
Jointly Building the Belt and Road: A Major Practice in Building a Community with a Shared Future for Mankind
(October 2023)
People's Republic of China
State Council Information Office
Contents
Preface
I. Originating from China and Belonging to the World
(1) Rooted in History, Promoting the Spirit of the Silk Road
(2) Responding to Reality, Solving Development Problems
(3) Creating the Future, Making the World Better
II. Paving the Road to Common Development and Prosperity
(1) Principles: Consultation, Contribution, and Shared Benefits
(2) Concepts: Openness, Green, Integrity
(3) Goals: High Standards, Sustainability, Benefiting People's Livelihood
(4) Vision: A Road of Happiness Benefiting the World
III. Promoting All-round and Multi-field Connectivity
(1) Extensive and In-depth Policy Communication
(2) Initial Scale of Infrastructure Connectivity
(3) Smooth, Convenient, and Efficient Trade
(4) Increasingly Diversified Financial Integration
(5) Solid Foundation of People-to-People Bonds
(6) Steady Progress in New Areas of Cooperation
IV. Injecting Positive Energy into World Peace and Development
(1) Bringing Tangible Benefits to Partner Countries
(2) Adding Vitality to Economic Globalization
(3) Providing New Solutions for Improving Global Governance
(4) Gathering Civilizational Strength for Human Progress
V. Promoting High-quality and Steady Progress of Jointly Building the Belt and Road
Conclusion
Preface
More than two thousand years ago, our ancestors, with a simple wish for friendly exchanges, crossed grasslands and deserts to open the overland Silk Road connecting Asia, Europe, and Africa, initiating a great era of human civilization exchange. More than a thousand years ago, our ancestors set sail, braving storms and waves, to explore the maritime Silk Road connecting the East and West, opening a new era of human civilization integration.
The ancient Silk Road stretched thousands of miles and lasted for thousands of years. It was not only a trade route for bartering goods but also a path for cultural exchange, making significant contributions to human social development and progress. Since the 1980s, the United Nations and some countries have successively proposed concepts such as the Eurasian Continental Bridge and the Silk Road Revival Plan, reflecting the common desire of peoples worldwide for communication, dialogue, and cooperation.
In March 2013, President Xi Jinping proposed the concept of building a community with a shared future for mankind; in September and October, he successively proposed jointly building the "Silk Road Economic Belt" and the "21st Century Maritime Silk Road." The Belt and Road Initiative creatively inherits and promotes the achievements of the ancient Silk Road in human historical civilization development, endowing it with new contemporary spirit and cultural connotations, providing a practical platform for building a community with a shared future for mankind.
Over the past 10 years, with joint efforts from all parties, the Belt and Road Initiative has evolved from a Chinese proposal to international practice, from concept to action, from vision to reality, from a broad sketch to meticulous work, achieving solid and substantial results, becoming a widely welcomed international public good and cooperation platform.
In the past decade, the Belt and Road Initiative has not only brought tangible benefits to related countries but also made positive contributions to promoting the healthy development of economic globalization, solving global development problems, and improving the global governance system. It has opened a new path for humanity to achieve modernization together and promoted the rooting and growth of a community with a shared future for mankind.
To introduce the achievements of the Belt and Road Initiative over the past 10 years, further enhance the international community's understanding, promote high-quality development of the Belt and Road, and allow more countries and peoples to benefit from it, this white paper is hereby released.
I. Originating from China and Belonging to the World
The world today is undergoing unprecedented changes unseen in a century, and human civilization faces increasing problems and challenges. China, focusing on the future and overall interests of humanity, responding to global development and the expectations of all countries, inherits and promotes the precious heritage of the Silk Road spirit of human civilization, and proposes the Belt and Road Initiative. This initiative connects history, reality, and the future, originates from China, faces the world, and benefits all humanity.
(1) Rooted in History, Promoting the Spirit of the Silk Road
Around 140 BC during the Han Dynasty in China, Zhang Qian set out from Chang'an, opening the road from the East to the West, completing the "journey of carving out a path." During the Tang, Song, and Yuan dynasties, the overland and maritime Silk Roads developed together, becoming important trade routes connecting East and West. In the early 15th century during the Ming Dynasty, Zheng He made seven voyages across the oceans, promoting maritime Silk Road trade exchanges. For thousands of years, the ancient Silk Road has been like a continuously flowing "artery," crossing the Nile River basin, the Tigris and Euphrates basins, the Indus and Ganges basins, the Yellow and Yangtze River basins, spanning the birthplaces of Egyptian, Babylonian, Indian, and Chinese civilizations, gathering places of Buddhism, Christianity, and Islam, and regions inhabited by peoples of different countries and skin colors. It promoted connectivity among countries in the Eurasian continent, facilitated exchanges and mutual learning between Eastern and Western civilizations, created great regional development and prosperity, and accumulated the Silk Road spirit centered on peace and cooperation, openness and inclusiveness, mutual learning, and mutual benefit.
As a symbol of East-West exchange and cooperation, the millennia-old Silk Road profoundly demonstrates that as long as unity and mutual trust, equality and mutual benefit, inclusiveness and mutual learning, and win-win cooperation are upheld, countries with different ethnicities, beliefs, and cultural backgrounds can fully share peace and common development. The spirit of the Silk Road aligns with the beautiful ideals long upheld by the Chinese nation of universal harmony and peace among all nations, corresponds with the Chinese way of dealing with the world of harmonizing all nations, befriending neighbors, and self-improvement to help others, and adapts to the current era's trend of peace, development, cooperation, and win-win outcomes.
The Communist Party of China is a great party with a global vision, and China is a major country committed to peaceful development. In the new era, jointly building the "Belt and Road" promotes the spirit of the Silk Road, evokes people's beautiful memories of past times, and inspires enthusiasm among countries to achieve connectivity. Jointly building the "Belt and Road" is both a tribute to history, recreating the grand scenes of the ancient Silk Road where envoys met on land and merchants never ceased on the routes, and the maritime prosperity where countless ships sailed; and a path to the future, drawing wisdom and strength from the ancient Silk Road and its spirit, continuing forward along the direction of history, better integrating the Chinese Dream and the world dream, fulfilling the peoples' desire for cultural exchange, hope for peace and security, pursuit of common development, and aspiration for a better life.
(2) Responding to Reality, Solving Development Problems
Development is the master key to solving all problems, and economic globalization provides strong momentum for world economic development. More than 500 years ago, after the ancient Silk Road was interrupted for over half a century, the Age of Discovery arrived, fundamentally changing the development pattern of human society. Since modern times, with the technological revolution and productivity development, economic globalization has become a historical trend. Especially after the 1990s, economic globalization developed rapidly, promoting great prosperity in trade, convenience in investment, large-scale personnel mobility, and significant technological advancement, making important contributions to human social progress. However, economic globalization dominated by a few countries has not achieved universal and inclusive development but has instead caused the rich to get richer and the poor poorer, widening the gap between developed and developing countries as well as within developed countries. Many developing countries have gained little or even lost autonomous development capacity in economic globalization, struggling to enter the path of modernization. Some countries engage in unilateralism, protectionism, and hegemonism, causing setbacks in economic globalization and putting the world economy at risk of recession. Issues such as insufficient global economic growth momentum, imperfect global economic governance systems, and imbalanced global economic development urgently need to be addressed; the situation where world economic development is dominated by a few countries, economic rules are controlled by a few countries, and development achievements are monopolized by a few countries must be changed.
Jointly building the "Belt and Road" is not only for China's development but also for the world's development. The historical trend of economic globalization is irreversible, and countries cannot return to an era of isolation and closed-door policies. However, economic globalization faces new adjustments in form and content and should develop toward greater openness, inclusiveness, universality, balance, and win-win outcomes. China is both a beneficiary and contributor to economic globalization. China actively participates in the process of economic globalization and has achieved rapid economic development through positive interaction with the world, successfully pioneering and advancing Chinese-style modernization, expanding the path for developing countries toward modernization. China's rapid economic growth and continuous reform and opening up provide important momentum for global economic stability and growth and the development of an open world economy. China is a firm supporter and defender of economic globalization. Jointly building the "Belt and Road" aligns highly with the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development in concepts, measures, and goals. It is a major initiative for China to expand openness, aiming to promote higher-quality development through higher-level openness and share China's development opportunities with the world; it is also China's solution to global development challenges, aiming to promote all countries toward modernization, advance a more dynamic, inclusive, and sustainable economic globalization process, and allow development achievements to benefit people in all countries more fairly and widely.
(3) Creating the Future, Making the World Better
With the deepening development of world multipolarity, economic globalization, social informatization, and cultural diversity, countries are more frequently and closely connected and interdependent than ever before, and humanity is increasingly becoming a community of shared destiny. At the same time, global deficits in peace, development, security, and governance are increasing, with regional conflicts, arms races, food security, terrorism, cybersecurity, climate change, energy crises, major infectious diseases, artificial intelligence, and other traditional and non-traditional security issues overlapping and compounding, posing serious threats to this beautiful planet where humanity lives. Facing emerging global problems and challenges, human society needs new ideas and concepts, a more just and reasonable, more balanced, more resilient, and more effective global governance system. What kind of world to build and how human society moves toward a bright future concerns every country and every person; this era's question must be answered well, and the correct historical choices must be made.
As a responsible major developing country, China, starting from the common destiny and overall interests of humanity, proposed building a community with a shared future for mankind, constructing a world that is lasting in peace, universally secure, jointly prosperous, open and inclusive, clean and beautiful, outlining a new beautiful vision for humanity's future. Jointly building the "Belt and Road" has the highest goal of building a community with a shared future for mankind and provides a practical platform and path to achieve this goal, promoting the continuous realization of this beautiful vision and serving as an important public good for improving global governance. Jointly building the "Belt and Road" crosses different regions, civilizations, and development stages, transcends ideological differences and social system disparities, promotes shared opportunities, joint development, and common prosperity among countries, and builds a community of shared interests, responsibilities, and destiny characterized by political mutual trust, economic integration, and cultural inclusiveness, becoming a vivid practice of building a community with a shared future for mankind. Jointly building the "Belt and Road" shapes new cognition and imagination of the world, pioneers new concepts and paradigms of international exchanges, promotes the global governance system toward a more just and reasonable direction, and leads human society toward a better future.
II. Paving the Road to Common Development and Prosperity
Jointly building the "Belt and Road" adheres to the concept of a community with a shared future for mankind, advocates and practices a global outlook, development outlook, security outlook, openness outlook, cooperation outlook, civilization outlook, and governance outlook that adapt to the times, providing ideological guidance and practical paths for countries worldwide to achieve common development and prosperity.
(1) Principles: Consultation, Contribution, and Shared Benefits
Jointly building the "Belt and Road" follows the principles of extensive consultation, joint contribution, and shared benefits, actively advocates the concept of win-win cooperation and the correct view of justice and interests, insists that all countries are equal participants, contributors, and beneficiaries, and promotes achieving great economic integration, extensive development linkage, and broad sharing of results.
Jointly building the "Belt and Road" adheres to the principle of extensive consultation; it is not a solo performance by China but a grand chorus by all parties. It advocates and practices true multilateralism, insists that matters concerning everyone should be discussed and handled by everyone, fully respects differences in countries' development levels, economic structures, legal systems, and cultural traditions, emphasizes equal participation, communication and consultation, and collective wisdom, attaches no political or economic conditions, is based on voluntariness, and maximizes consensus building. Regardless of size, strength, or wealth, all countries participate equally and can actively offer suggestions in bilateral and multilateral cooperation. All parties strengthen bilateral or multilateral communication and consultation, jointly explore and innovatively establish many cooperation mechanisms, providing platforms for dialogue and cooperation among economies at different development stages and participation in global governance.
The joint construction of the "Belt and Road" adheres to the principle of joint building. It is not China's foreign aid program or a geopolitical tool, but an action plan for linked development; it is not a replacement for existing regional mechanisms, but rather complements and connects with them. It insists on the participation of all parties, deeply aligning with the development strategies of relevant countries and regions, fully tapping and leveraging the development potential and comparative advantages of all parties, jointly creating new development opportunities, seeking new driving forces for development, and expanding new development spaces, achieving complementary advantages and linked development by each party contributing its strengths and doing its best. Through various forms such as bilateral cooperation, third-party market cooperation, and multilateral cooperation, it encourages more countries and enterprises to participate deeply, forming a development synergy. Following market rules, it realizes the interests of all participants through market-oriented operations, with enterprises as the main body and governments mainly playing the role of building platforms, establishing mechanisms, and policy guidance. China leverages its large economic scale and market size, rich experience in infrastructure construction, strong and high-quality equipment manufacturing capabilities with good cost performance, as well as comprehensive advantages in industry, capital, technology, talent, and management, playing a leading role in the joint construction of the "Belt and Road."
The joint construction of the "Belt and Road" adheres to the principle of sharing, upholding a cooperative view of mutual benefit and win-win outcomes, seeking the intersection of interests and the greatest common denominator of cooperation among all parties, aligning with the development needs of all parties, responding to the real demands of the people, achieving shared development opportunities and results for all, and leaving no country behind. Most participating countries are developing countries, and all parties work together to address shortcomings such as backward infrastructure, lagging industrial development, low levels of industrialization, lack of capital and technology, and insufficient talent reserves in developing countries, promoting economic and social development. China insists on putting morality first and balancing righteousness and interests, providing help within its capacity to participating countries, sincerely assisting developing countries to accelerate development. At the same time, the joint construction of the "Belt and Road" promotes the formation of a new pattern of comprehensive openness with land-sea domestic and international linkage and east-west mutual support, building a higher-level open economic system, and accelerating the construction of a new development pattern with the domestic cycle as the main body and domestic and international dual cycles promoting each other.
(2) Concepts: Openness, Green, Integrity
The joint construction of the "Belt and Road" always adheres to the essence of openness, the foundation of greenness, and the brightness of integrity, insisting on openness and inclusiveness, promoting green development, and combating corruption with zero tolerance, steadily advancing on the path of high-quality development.
The joint construction of the "Belt and Road" is a broad avenue where everyone walks hand in hand, not a private path for any single party. It does not exclude or target any party, does not engage in geopolitical small calculations, does not create closed and exclusive "small circles," nor does it form small groups based on ideological standards, and certainly does not form military alliances. From the Eurasian continent to Africa, the Americas, and Oceania, regardless of political systems, historical cultures, religious beliefs, ideologies, or development stages, anyone with a willingness for common development can participate. All parties are guided by openness and inclusiveness, firmly oppose protectionism, unilateralism, and hegemonism, jointly promote a comprehensive, three-dimensional, networked pattern of connectivity, explore and create new cooperation models of win-win, shared responsibility, and joint governance, build global interconnected partnerships, and construct a harmonious and coexisting big family.
The joint construction of the "Belt and Road" follows the international trend of green and low-carbon development, advocates respecting, conforming to, and protecting nature, respects the rights of all parties to pursue green development, responds to the sustainable development needs of all parties, and forms a consensus on jointly building a green "Belt and Road." All parties actively carry out policy dialogues on green development under the "Belt and Road," share and showcase green development concepts and achievements, enhance consensus and actions on green development, deepen practical cooperation in green infrastructure, green energy, green transportation, green finance, and other fields, strive to build a resource-saving, green, and low-carbon Silk Road, and make important contributions to protecting the ecological environment, achieving carbon peak and carbon neutrality, and addressing climate change. China fully leverages its advantages in renewable energy, energy conservation and environmental protection, clean production, and other fields, using Chinese technology, products, and experience to promote the vigorous development of green "Belt and Road" cooperation.
The joint construction of the "Belt and Road" regards integrity as an inherent requirement and necessary condition for steady and long-term progress, always insisting that all cooperation operates transparently. All parties work together to improve the construction of anti-corruption legal systems and mechanisms, deepen the alignment of anti-corruption laws and regulations, pragmatically advance international anti-corruption cooperation, firmly oppose all forms of corruption and other international crimes, continuously combat commercial bribery, ensure that funds and projects operate efficiently with integrity, enable better implementation of all cooperation, and make the "Belt and Road" a clean and upright path. In April 2019, China, together with relevant countries, international organizations, and representatives from business and academia, jointly initiated the "Clean Silk Road Beijing Initiative," calling on all parties to jointly discuss, build, and share a clean Silk Road. Chinese "going global" enterprises adhere to compliance and lawful operation, abiding by both Chinese laws and the local laws and international rules of host countries, enhancing overseas integrity risk prevention capabilities, strengthening project supervision and risk control, and creating conscientious, clean, and high-quality projects; central enterprises have issued 868 compliance guidelines in key areas, formulated over 5,000 job compliance responsibility lists, and central enterprises, central financial enterprises, and branches have formulated and improved more than 15,000 overseas management systems. In November 2020, more than 60 Chinese enterprises deeply involved in the "Belt and Road" construction jointly initiated the "Integrity and Compliance Initiative for Enterprises Participating in the Belt and Road."
(3) Goals: High Standards, Sustainability, Benefiting People's Livelihood
The joint construction of the "Belt and Road" aims for high standards, sustainability, and benefits to people's livelihoods, striving to achieve higher levels of cooperation, higher input efficiency, higher supply quality, and higher development resilience, promoting the continuous deepening and solid progress of high-quality joint construction of the "Belt and Road."
The joint construction of the "Belt and Road" introduces widely supported rules and standards, promoting enterprises to implement internationally accepted rules and standards in project construction, operation, procurement, bidding, and other links, driving cooperation and project construction in various fields with high standards. It advocates aligning with international advanced rules and standards, building high-standard free trade zones, implementing higher-level trade and investment liberalization and facilitation policies, ensuring smooth, safe, and orderly flow of personnel, goods, capital, and data, achieving higher-level connectivity and deeper exchanges and cooperation. It insists on high standards and practicality, benchmarking international first-class standards, pursuing high cost performance, piloting first and then promoting, and encourages participating parties to adopt rules and standards suitable for themselves and follow development paths that fit their national conditions. China has established a high-level leadership institution to promote the construction of the "Belt and Road," issued a series of policy documents, and continuously improved the top-level design and practical measures of the joint construction of the "Belt and Road."
The joint construction of the "Belt and Road" aligns with the United Nations 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda, follows the path of coordinated economic, social, and environmental development, strives to eliminate root causes and obstacles to development, enhances the endogenous driving force for independent development of participating countries, promotes lasting, inclusive, and sustainable economic growth in all countries, and integrates the concept of sustainable development into project selection, implementation, management, and other aspects. It follows international practices and debt sustainability principles, continuously improves a long-term, stable, sustainable, and risk-controllable investment and financing system, actively innovates investment and financing models, broadens investment and financing channels, forms a stable, transparent, and high-quality funding guarantee system, and ensures commercial and fiscal sustainability. No country falls into a debt crisis due to participation in the joint construction of the "Belt and Road."
The joint construction of the "Belt and Road" insists on being people-centered, focusing on poverty eradication, increasing employment, and improving people's livelihoods, so that cooperation results better benefit all people. All parties deepen cooperation in public health, poverty reduction and disaster relief, green development, science and education, culture and arts, health, and other fields, promote coordinated progress among political parties, social organizations, think tanks, youth, women, and local exchanges, strive to build grassroots and people-centered livelihood projects, and continuously enhance people's sense of gain and happiness. China actively promotes the construction of small and beautiful foreign aid and livelihood projects, with footprints from Asia to Africa, from Latin America to the South Pacific, building roads and railways, schools and hospitals, farmland and villages, helping participating countries reduce poverty, eliminate poverty, and improve people's well-being.
(4) Vision: A Road of Happiness Benefiting the World
As an initiative for development, cooperation, and openness, the jointly built "Belt and Road" pursues development, advocates win-win outcomes, conveys hope, and aims to enhance understanding and trust, strengthen all-round exchanges, thereby promoting common development and achieving shared prosperity.
The Road of Peace. Peace is the premise of development, and development is the foundation of peace. The jointly built "Belt and Road" transcends the jungle law and hegemonic order based on power confrontation, abandons the zero-sum logic of you lose and I win, or life-and-death struggles, breaks free from Cold War thinking of ideological confrontation and geopolitical games, follows the path of peaceful development, and is committed to fundamentally solving the issues of lasting peace and universal security. Countries respect each other's sovereignty, dignity, and territorial integrity, respect each other's development paths and social systems, and respect each other's core interests and major concerns. As the initiator, China actively promotes the building of a new type of international relations based on mutual respect, fairness, justice, and win-win cooperation, creates partnerships of dialogue without confrontation and companionship without alliance, promotes all parties to establish a new security concept that is common, comprehensive, cooperative, and sustainable, fosters a security pattern of joint construction and sharing, and builds a peaceful and stable development environment.
The Road of Prosperity. The jointly built "Belt and Road" does not follow the old colonial path of exploitation and plunder, does not engage in forced buying and selling that overrides people, does not create a "center-periphery" dependent system, nor does it shift problems, blame neighbors, or harm others for self-benefit. Its goal is to achieve mutual benefit and win-win results, and common development and prosperity. All parties firmly grasp development as the greatest common denominator, leverage their respective resource and potential advantages, stimulate their own growth momentum, enhance independent development capabilities, jointly create more development opportunities and space, promote the formation of new centers and new drivers of world economic growth, drive the world economy to achieve new inclusive growth, and push global development toward a new stage of balanced, coordinated, and inclusive progress.
The Road of Openness. The jointly built "Belt and Road" transcends national borders, ideological differences, development stage distinctions, social system differences, and geopolitical interest disputes. It is an open and inclusive cooperation process; it is not about starting anew or tearing down the old, but a beneficial supplement and improvement to existing international mechanisms. All parties adhere to the core values and basic principles of the multilateral trading system, jointly build an open cooperation platform, maintain and develop an open world economy, create an environment conducive to open development, establish a fair, reasonable, and transparent international trade and investment rule system, promote common openness characterized by win-win cooperation, shared responsibility, and joint governance, facilitate the orderly flow of production factors, efficient allocation of resources, deep market integration, promote trade and investment liberalization and facilitation, maintain the stability and smoothness of global industrial and supply chains, and build an open, inclusive, universal, balanced, and win-win economic globalization.
The Road of Innovation. Innovation is an important driving force for development. The jointly built "Belt and Road" adheres to innovation-driven development, seizes opportunities in digitalization, networking, and intelligence, explores new business forms, new technologies, and new models, seeks new growth drivers and development paths, and helps all parties achieve leapfrog development. All parties jointly strengthen interconnection of digital infrastructure, advance the construction of the Digital Silk Road, enhance innovation cooperation in cutting-edge scientific fields, promote deep integration of science and technology with industry and finance, optimize the innovation environment, gather innovation resources, promote the formation of regional collaborative innovation patterns, narrow the digital divide, and inject strong momentum into common development.
The Road of Civilization. The jointly built "Belt and Road" adheres to a view of civilization based on equality, mutual learning, dialogue, and inclusiveness, promotes the common values of all humanity such as peace, development, fairness, justice, democracy, and freedom, transcends civilizational barriers through exchanges, transcends civilizational conflicts through mutual learning, transcends civilizational superiority through coexistence, and promotes harmony in diversity, seeking common ground while reserving differences, and mutual learning and reference among civilizations. All parties actively establish multi-level cultural cooperation mechanisms, build more cooperation platforms, open more cooperation channels, strengthen exchanges in various fields, promote mutual understanding, respect, and trust among different countries, better consolidate consensus on ideas and values, and achieve innovative development of human civilization.
III. Promoting All-round and Multi-field Connectivity
The jointly built "Belt and Road" centers on connectivity, taking infrastructure "hard connectivity" as an important direction, rules and standards "soft connectivity" as important support, and the hearts of the peoples of the participating countries "heart connectivity" as an important foundation, continuously deepening policy communication, facility connectivity, unimpeded trade, financial integration, and people-to-people bonds, continuously expanding cooperation fields, becoming the world's broadest and largest international cooperation platform today.
(1) Extensive and In-depth Policy Communication
Policy communication is an important guarantee for the jointly built "Belt and Road." China and the participating countries and international organizations actively build multi-level policy communication and exchange mechanisms, play policy synergy effects in development strategic planning, technical and economic policies, management rules and standards, jointly formulate plans and measures to promote regional cooperation, inject "lubricants" and "catalysts" into deepening pragmatic cooperation, and the jointly built "Belt and Road" is increasingly becoming an important framework for exchanges and cooperation among countries.
Strategic alignment and policy coordination continue to deepen. At the global level, in November 2016, at the 71st United Nations General Assembly, 193 member states unanimously agreed to include the "Belt and Road" initiative in the General Assembly resolution; in March 2017, the UN Security Council adopted Resolution 2344, calling for strengthened regional economic cooperation through "Belt and Road" construction; the United Nations Development Programme, World Health Organization, and others have successively signed "Belt and Road" cooperation agreements with China. At the World Trade Organization, China promoted the completion of the text negotiation of the "Investment Facilitation Agreement," which will establish a coordinated and unified investment management system in more than 110 countries and regions, promoting "Belt and Road" investment cooperation. At regional and multilateral levels, the jointly built "Belt and Road" effectively aligns with the UN 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda, the ASEAN Connectivity Master Plan 2025, ASEAN Indo-Pacific Outlook, the African Union Agenda 2063, the EU-Eurasia Connectivity Strategy, and supports regional integration processes and global development undertakings. At the bilateral level, the jointly built "Belt and Road" aligns with the Russia-Eurasian Economic Union construction, Kazakhstan's "Bright Road" new economic policy, Turkmenistan's "Reviving the Silk Road" strategy, Mongolia's "Grassland Road" initiative, Indonesia's "Global Maritime Fulcrum" concept, the Philippines' "Build, Build, Build" plan, Vietnam's "Two Corridors, One Belt," South Africa's "Economic Reconstruction and Recovery Plan," Egypt's Suez Canal Corridor development plan, Saudi Arabia's "Vision 2030," and other national strategies. As of the end of June 2023, China has signed more than 200 cooperation documents on jointly building the "Belt and Road" with over 150 countries across five continents and more than 30 international organizations, forming a large number of landmark projects and "small but beautiful" projects benefiting people's livelihoods.
A long-term mechanism for policy communication has basically taken shape. Led by head-of-state diplomacy, supported by intergovernmental strategic communication, assisted by policy coordination among localities and departments, and carried out through project cooperation by enterprises and social organizations, a multi-level, multi-platform, multi-entity regular communication channel has been established. China has successfully hosted two sessions of the "Belt and Road" International Cooperation Forum, providing an important platform for participating countries and international organizations to deepen exchanges, enhance mutual trust, and strengthen interactions. The first "Belt and Road" International Cooperation Forum in 2017 was attended by heads of state and government from 29 countries, with more than 1,600 representatives from over 140 countries and more than 80 international organizations, resulting in five categories and 279 pragmatic outcomes. The second forum in 2019 was attended by heads of state and government from 38 countries, as well as 40 leaders including the UN Secretary-General and the IMF Managing Director at the roundtable summit, with over 6,000 representatives from more than 150 countries and 92 international organizations, producing six categories and 283 pragmatic outcomes.
Multilateral cooperation continues to advance. Under the framework of jointly building the "Belt and Road," Chinese and foreign partners have initiated the establishment of more than 20 multilateral dialogue and cooperation mechanisms in specialized fields, covering railways, ports, energy, finance, taxation, environmental protection, disaster reduction, think tanks, media, and other areas, with the number of participating members continuously increasing. The participating countries also rely on major multilateral cooperation platforms such as China-ASEAN (10+1) cooperation, the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation, the China-Arab States Cooperation Forum, the China-Latin America Forum, the China-Pacific Island Countries Economic Development Cooperation Forum, China-Central and Eastern European Countries Cooperation, the World Economic Forum, the Boao Forum for Asia, and the Summit of the Communist Party of China and World Political Party Leaders to continuously deepen pragmatic cooperation.
Steady progress in aligning rules and standards. The level of standardization cooperation has continuously improved. As of the end of June 2023, China has signed 107 standardization cooperation documents with standardization institutions from 65 countries including Pakistan, Russia, Greece, Ethiopia, Costa Rica, as well as international and regional organizations, promoting international cooperation in standards across multiple fields such as civil aviation, climate change, agricultural food, building materials, electric vehicles, oil and gas pipelines, logistics, small hydropower, marine, and surveying and mapping. The "Belt and Road" standards information platform operates well, with standardization overview information covering 149 participating countries, providing precise retrieval services for standardization catalog information from 59 countries and 6 international and regional standardization organizations, building a bridge for standard interconnection among participating countries. China's capacity to supply foreign language versions of standards continues to improve, releasing nearly 1,400 national standards and more than 1,000 industry standards in foreign languages. In May 2022, the African Arbitration Association established a regional arbitration center in Hong Kong, actively providing diversified dispute resolution paths for jointly building the "Belt and Road." China continues to strengthen cross-border accounting and auditing regulatory cooperation with 22 countries and regions including Russia, Malaysia, and Singapore, providing institutional guarantees for expanding cross-border investment and financing channels.
(2) Initial Scale of Infrastructure Connectivity
Infrastructure connectivity is a priority area for jointly building the "Belt and Road." The "Belt and Road" is based on the basic framework of "six corridors, six routes, multiple countries, and multiple ports," accelerating the construction of a multi-level, composite infrastructure network, basically forming an integrated "land, sea, and air network" connectivity pattern, laying a solid foundation for promoting economic and trade cooperation, capacity cooperation, cultural exchanges, and personnel exchanges.
Economic corridors and international channel construction have achieved remarkable results. Participating countries jointly promote the construction of international backbone channels, creating an infrastructure network connecting various sub-regions of Asia and between Asia, Europe, and Africa. In the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor direction, key projects are progressing steadily, with the Peshawar-Karachi Expressway (Sukkur to Multan section), Karakoram Highway Phase II (Havelian to Thakot section), and Lahore Orange Line Metro completed and operational; power stations in Sahiwal, Qasim Port, Thar, and Hub maintain safe and stable operations; the Merak DC transmission project has entered commercial operation; the Karot Hydropower Station is connected to the grid and generating electricity; and the Rashakai Special Economic Zone has entered full construction. In the New Eurasian Land Bridge Economic Corridor direction, the Serbia Belgrade-Novi Sad section of the Hungary-Serbia railway opened in March 2022, and track laying has started on the Budapest-Kelebia section in Hungary; the Pelješac Bridge in Croatia celebrated its first anniversary of operation; the Shuangxi highway is fully connected; and the Montenegro north-south highway has been successfully built and put into operation. In the China-Indochina Peninsula Economic Corridor direction, the China-Laos railway is fully completed, operational, and performing well, with the golden transport corridor increasingly prominent; as a flagship project of China-Indonesia cooperation under the "Belt and Road," the 350 km/h Jakarta-Bandung high-speed railway has opened and is running; the first phase of the China-Thailand railway (Bangkok to Korat) has signed online engineering contracts, with 11 civil engineering sections started (one section completed). In the China-Mongolia-Russia Economic Corridor direction, the China-Russia Heihe highway bridge and Tongjiang railway bridge are operational; the China-Russia East Line natural gas pipeline has officially started gas transmission; and the feasibility study for upgrading and developing the China-Mongolia-Russia middle line railway has officially started. In the China-Central Asia-West Asia Economic Corridor direction, the China-Kyrgyzstan-Uzbekistan highway transport route operates normally; the China-Central Asia natural gas pipeline runs steadily; and the grain and oil special line in North Kazakhstan is connected with the China-Europe freight train network. In the Bangladesh-China-India-Myanmar Economic Corridor direction, the China-Myanmar crude oil and natural gas pipelines have been completed and put into operation; the feasibility study for the Muse-Mandalay railway in Myanmar has been completed; the Mandalay-Kyaukpyu railway feasibility study has started; and projects such as the China-Myanmar Friendship Bridge and the Dohazari to Cox's Bazar railway have made positive progress. In Africa, the Mombasa-Nairobi railway and Addis Ababa-Djibouti railway have successively opened and operated, becoming important channels driving the deep development of East Africa and the entire African continent.
Maritime connectivity continues to improve. Cooperation in ports and shipping among participating countries deepens continuously, greatly improving cargo transportation efficiency: Greece's Piraeus Port annual cargo throughput has increased to over 5 million TEUs, becoming the fourth largest container port in Europe and the leading container port in the Mediterranean; Pakistan's Gwadar Port has made significant progress in joint construction, steadily advancing toward the goal of becoming a logistics hub and industrial base; Myanmar's Kyaukpyu deep-water port project is conducting preliminary work such as geological surveys and environmental and social impact assessments; Sri Lanka's Hambantota Port bulk cargo annual throughput has increased to 1.205 million tons; Italy's Vado container terminal has opened and become Italy's first semi-automated terminal; Nigeria's Lekki deep-water port project has been completed and put into operation, becoming an important modern deep-water port in West Africa. The "Maritime Silk Road" network continues to expand. As of the end of June 2023, the "Maritime Silk Road" routes have reached 117 ports in 43 countries worldwide, with more than 300 well-known domestic and foreign shipping companies, port enterprises, and think tanks joining the "Maritime Silk Road" alliance. The "Maritime Silk Road Marine Environment Forecasting and Guarantee System" continues to operate commercially, covering more than 100 cities in participating countries.
The construction of the "Air Silk Road" has achieved remarkable results. The aviation route network among participating countries is expanding rapidly, and air connectivity is steadily improving. China has signed bilateral air transport agreements with 104 participating countries and achieved direct air routes with 57 participating countries, continuously improving cross-border transportation facilitation. Chinese enterprises actively participate in civil aviation infrastructure cooperation in participating countries such as Pakistan, Nepal, and Togo, assisting local civil aviation development. The China Civil Aviation "Belt and Road" cooperation platform was officially established in August 2020, and the civil aviation exchange and cooperation mechanisms and platforms among participating countries have become more sound. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the "Air Silk Road," represented by the Zhengzhou-Luxembourg route, maintained continuous flights, transporting large amounts of anti-epidemic supplies, playing the role of an "air lifeline" between China and Europe, and making positive contributions to maintaining the stability of international industrial and supply chains.
International multimodal transport corridors continue to expand. The China-Europe freight trains, China-Europe land-sea express lines, the new western land-sea corridor, and the Lianyungang-Horgos new Eurasian land-sea intermodal transport are steadily developing. China-Europe freight trains reach more than 200 cities in 25 European countries, with 86 routes running at speeds of 120 km/h crossing major regions of the Eurasian hinterland, and the logistics distribution network covers the Eurasian continent; as of the end of June 2023, a total of 74,000 China-Europe freight trains have been operated, transporting nearly 7 million TEUs, with over 50,000 types of goods involving 53 major categories including complete vehicles, mechanical equipment, and electronic products, with a total cargo value exceeding 300 billion US dollars. The China-Europe land-sea express line has grown from nothing to become the third trade channel between China and Europe after traditional sea routes and land China-Europe freight trains, with a total transport volume exceeding 180,000 TEUs in 2022 and more than 2,600 train trips. The new western land-sea corridor's rail-sea intermodal trains cover 18 provinces (regions, municipalities) in central and western China, with cargo flows reaching more than 100 countries and over 300 ports.
(3) Smooth, Convenient, and Efficient Trade
Trade and investment cooperation is an important part of jointly building the "Belt and Road". The participating countries focus on solving issues related to trade and investment liberalization and facilitation, significantly eliminating trade and investment barriers, improving the business environment within the region and in each country, building free trade zones, expanding trade areas, optimizing trade structures, expanding mutual investment and industrial cooperation fields, promoting the establishment of a more balanced, equal, and sustainable trade system, developing mutually beneficial and win-win economic and trade relations, and jointly enlarging and improving the cooperation "cake".
The scale of trade and investment has steadily expanded. From 2013 to 2022, the total import and export volume between China and the participating countries reached 19.1 trillion US dollars, with an average annual growth rate of 6.4%; the cumulative two-way investment with the participating countries exceeded 380 billion US dollars, of which China's outward direct investment exceeded 240 billion US dollars; the newly signed contract amount and completed turnover of Chinese contracted projects in the participating countries reached 2 trillion US dollars and 1.3 trillion US dollars respectively. In 2022, the total import and export volume between China and the participating countries was nearly 2.9 trillion US dollars, accounting for 45.4% of China's total foreign trade value during the same period, an increase of 6.2 percentage points compared to 2013; Chinese private enterprises' import and export volume with the participating countries exceeded 1.5 trillion US dollars, accounting for 53.7% of the total import and export volume between China and the participating countries during the same period.
The level of trade and investment liberalization and facilitation continues to improve. The participating countries jointly uphold multilateralism and free trade, striving to create a good institutional environment for close economic and trade relations among themselves, making positive progress in areas such as work system docking, technical standards coordination, mutual recognition of inspection results, and electronic certificate networking. As of the end of August 2023, more than 80 countries and international organizations have participated in the "Belt and Road" Trade Connectivity Cooperation Initiative initiated by China. China has signed 21 free trade agreements with 28 countries and regions; the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) officially came into effect on January 1, 2022. It is the world's largest free trade area in terms of population and economic and trade scale, overlapping and complementing the countries and regions covered by the "Belt and Road" initiative in terms of coverage, fields, and content, forming a new dual-driven economic and trade cooperation development pattern in Asia. China is also actively promoting accession to the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) and the Digital Economy Partnership Agreement (DEPA). China has signed bilateral investment agreements with 135 countries and regions; signed agreements to avoid double taxation (including arrangements and agreements) with 112 countries and regions; achieved mutual recognition of "Authorized Economic Operators" (AEO) with 35 participating countries; and signed third-party market cooperation documents with 14 countries. China has established "single window" cooperation mechanisms and signed customs inspection and quarantine cooperation documents with participating countries such as Singapore, Pakistan, Mongolia, and Iran, effectively improving port clearance efficiency.
The role of trade and investment platforms has become more prominent. The China International Import Expo is the world's first national-level exhibition themed on imports, having been successfully held for five consecutive sessions, with a cumulative intended transaction amount of nearly 350 billion US dollars, about 2,000 first-release and first-exhibition products, and diverse participating countries and entities, becoming an international public platform for international procurement, investment promotion, cultural exchange, open cooperation, and global sharing. Key exhibitions such as the China Import and Export Fair, China International Fair for Trade in Services, China International Investment and Trade Fair, China International Consumer Goods Expo, Global Digital Trade Expo, China-Africa Economic and Trade Expo, China-Arab States Expo, China-Russia Expo, China-Central and Eastern Europe Countries Expo, China-ASEAN Expo, and China-Eurasia Expo have continuously expanded their influence, strongly promoting economic and trade investment cooperation among the participating countries. The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of China has successfully held eight "Belt and Road" Summit Forums, and the Macao Special Administrative Region has successfully held 14 International Infrastructure Investment and Construction Summit Forums, playing important roles in supporting economic and trade investment cooperation in the "Belt and Road" initiative.
Industrial cooperation has been deeply advanced. The participating countries are committed to creating a cooperative pattern of coordinated development and mutual benefit, effectively promoting industrial structure upgrades and industrial chain optimization layouts in various countries. The participating countries jointly promote international capacity cooperation, deepen cooperation in traditional industries such as steel, non-ferrous metals, building materials, automobiles, construction machinery, resources and energy, and agriculture, explore cooperation in emerging industries such as the digital economy, new energy vehicles, nuclear energy and nuclear technology, and 5G, carry out tripartite and multiparty market cooperation with willing countries, and promote complementary advantages and mutual benefits among all parties. As of the end of June 2023, China has signed capacity cooperation documents with more than 40 countries. The China International Mining Conference and China-ASEAN Mining Cooperation Forum have become important platforms for capacity cooperation in mining among the participating countries. The Shanghai Cooperation Organization Agricultural Technology Exchange and Training Demonstration Base assists in the development of agricultural science and technology in the "Belt and Road" initiative and promotes economic and trade cooperation in agriculture among countries. The Karachi Nuclear Power Plant K2 and K3 units of the "Hualong One" nuclear power units jointly built by China and Pakistan have been completed and put into operation. The joint venture uranium fuel assembly plant in Ulriben, Kazakhstan, has been successfully put into production. The China-ASEAN Peaceful Use of Nuclear Technology Forum has established bridges and links for nuclear technology industry cooperation among the participating countries, supporting livelihood and economic development. Chinese enterprises have cooperated with governments and enterprises of the participating countries to jointly build more than 70 overseas industrial parks. The China-Malaysia and China-Indonesia "two countries, two parks" as well as the China-Belarus Industrial Park, China-Arab (UAE) Capacity Cooperation Demonstration Park, and China-Egypt (and) TEDA Suez Economic and Trade Cooperation Zone are steadily advancing.
(4) Increasingly Diversified Financial Integration
Financial connectivity is an important support for jointly building the "Belt and Road". The participating countries and relevant institutions actively carry out various forms of financial cooperation, innovate investment and financing models, broaden investment and financing channels, enrich investment and financing entities, and improve investment and financing mechanisms, vigorously promoting policy-based finance, development finance, commercial finance, and cooperative finance to support the "Belt and Road" initiative, striving to build a long-term, stable, sustainable, and risk-controllable investment and financing system.
Financial cooperation mechanisms are increasingly sound. The China Development Bank has promoted the establishment of multilateral financial cooperation mechanisms such as the China-Central and Eastern Europe UnionPay Consortium, China-Arab States UnionPay Consortium, China-ASEAN UnionPay Consortium, China-Japan-Korea-ASEAN UnionPay Consortium, China-Africa Financial Cooperation UnionPay Consortium, and China-Latin America Development Finance Cooperation Mechanism. The Industrial and Commercial Bank of China has promoted the establishment of a regular interbank cooperation mechanism for the "Belt and Road". As of the end of June 2023, 13 Chinese-funded banks have established 145 primary institutions in 50 participating countries, 17.7 million merchants in 131 participating countries have opened UnionPay card services, and 74 participating countries have launched UnionPay mobile payment services. The "Belt and Road" Innovation Development Center, "Belt and Road" Financial Development Research Center, and China-International Monetary Fund Joint Capacity Building Center have been successively established. China has signed bilateral local currency swap agreements with 20 participating countries and established RMB clearing arrangements in 17 participating countries. The number of participants, transaction volume, and influence of the RMB cross-border payment system have gradually increased, effectively promoting trade and investment facilitation. Financial regulatory cooperation and exchanges continue to advance. The China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission (now the National Financial Regulatory Administration) and the China Securities Regulatory Commission have signed memorandums of understanding on regulatory cooperation with regulatory agencies in multiple foreign countries, promoting the establishment of regional regulatory coordination mechanisms, facilitating efficient allocation of funds, strengthening risk control, and creating good investment conditions for various financial institutions and investment entities.
Investment and financing channels are continuously expanding. China has established the Silk Road Fund and, together with relevant countries, founded the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank. The Silk Road Fund specifically serves the "Belt and Road" construction. As of the end of June 2023, the Silk Road Fund had signed 75 investment projects with a committed investment amount of approximately 22.04 billion USD; the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank has 106 members, approved 227 investment projects, with a total investment of 43.6 billion USD. These projects cover transportation, energy, public health, and other fields, providing investment and financing support for infrastructure connectivity and sustainable economic and social development in participating countries. China actively participates in various existing financing arrangement mechanisms, signing memorandums of cooperation with international financial institutions such as the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank, jointly establishing multilateral development financing cooperation centers with international financial institutions, strengthening third-party market investment and financing cooperation with the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, and conducting joint financing with the International Finance Corporation, African Development Bank, and others, effectively leveraging market funds. China has initiated the establishment of international economic cooperation funds such as the China-Eurasia Economic Cooperation Fund, China-Latin America Cooperation Fund, China-Central and Eastern Europe Investment Cooperation Fund, China-ASEAN Investment Cooperation Fund, China-Latin America Capacity Cooperation Investment Fund, and China-Africa Capacity Cooperation Fund, effectively expanding investment and financing channels for participating countries. The China Development Bank and the Export-Import Bank of China have respectively set up special loans for the "Belt and Road" initiative, concentrating resources to increase financing support. By the end of 2022, the China Development Bank had directly provided high-quality financial services to more than 1,300 "Belt and Road" projects, effectively playing a leading role in development finance and mobilizing various domestic and foreign funds to participate in financing. The Export-Import Bank of China's "Belt and Road" loan balance reached 2.2 trillion yuan, covering more than 130 participating countries, with loan projects driving over 400 billion USD in investment and more than 2 trillion USD in trade. China Export & Credit Insurance Corporation fully utilizes its export credit insurance policy functions to actively provide comprehensive guarantees for the "Belt and Road" construction.
Investment and financing methods continue to innovate. Various innovative models such as funds and bonds are continuously developing, and the level of financial cooperation for the "Belt and Road" construction is steadily improving. China's securities industry has established multiple "Belt and Road" themed funds and created "Belt and Road" themed indices. In December 2015, the China Securities Regulatory Commission officially launched a pilot program for overseas institutions to issue RMB bonds ("Panda Bonds") in the exchange market. As of the end of June 2023, 99 "Panda Bonds" had been issued in the exchange bond market with a total issuance scale of 152.54 billion yuan; 46 "Belt and Road" bonds had been issued with a total issuance scale of 52.72 billion yuan. Green finance is steadily developing. In May 2019, the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China issued the first "Belt and Road" interbank regular cooperation mechanism (BRBR) green bond that meets both international green bond standards and Chinese green bond standards. By the end of 2022, more than 40 large global institutions had signed the "Belt and Road" Green Investment Principles. In June 2023, the Export-Import Bank of China issued financial bonds themed on promoting international cooperation and supporting infrastructure construction for the "Belt and Road". Securities and futures exchanges in China steadily promote practical cooperation with exchanges in participating countries in equity, products, technology, and other areas, actively supporting the development of exchange markets such as the Astana International Exchange in Kazakhstan, the Pakistan Stock Exchange, and the Dhaka Stock Exchange in Bangladesh, which are either jointly built or invested in by participating countries.
Debt sustainability is continuously enhanced. Following the principles of equal participation, shared benefits, and shared risks, China and 28 countries jointly approved the "Belt and Road" Financing Guidelines, promoting governments, financial institutions, and enterprises in participating countries to emphasize debt sustainability and improve debt management capabilities. China draws on the International Monetary Fund and World Bank's debt sustainability analysis frameworks for low-income countries and, combined with the actual conditions of participating countries, has developed a debt sustainability analysis tool and released the "Belt and Road" Debt Sustainability Analysis Framework, encouraging voluntary use by all parties. China insists on being guided by economic and social benefits, providing loans for project construction based on the needs and actual conditions of the host countries, avoiding causing debt risks and fiscal burdens. The investment focuses on connectivity infrastructure projects and livelihood projects urgently needed by participating countries, bringing effective investment, increasing quality assets, and enhancing development momentum. Many think tank experts and international institutions have pointed out that almost all "Belt and Road" projects are initiated by host countries for their own economic development and livelihood improvement, following economic logic rather than geopolitical logic.
(5) Solid Foundation of People-to-People Bonds
People-to-people bonds are the social foundation of the "Belt and Road" construction. Participating countries inherit and promote the spirit of friendly cooperation of the Silk Road, widely carry out cultural and tourism cooperation, educational exchanges, media and think tank cooperation, and people-to-people exchanges, promoting mutual learning among civilizations and cultural integration and innovation. This has formed a diverse, interactive, and flourishing pattern of cultural exchanges, solidifying the public support base for the "Belt and Road" construction.
Cultural and tourism cooperation is rich and colorful. As of the end of June 2023, China had signed cooperation documents in the fields of culture and tourism with 144 participating countries. China and participating countries jointly created cooperation platforms, establishing the Silk Road International Theatre Alliance, Museum Alliance, Arts Festival Alliance, Library Alliance, and Art Gallery Alliance, with 562 member units, including 326 cultural institutions from 72 participating countries. China continuously deepens foreign cultural exchanges, launching the "Cultural Silk Road" plan and widely carrying out key brand activities such as "Happy Spring Festival," "Hello! China," and "Art Gathering on the Silk Road." China jointly holds cultural years and tourism years with Brunei, Cambodia, Greece, Italy, Malaysia, Russia, and ASEAN, and mutually hosts cultural relic exhibitions, film festivals, art festivals, book fairs, music festivals, and the creation and mutual translation and broadcasting of fine books, radio, film, and television works with participating countries. It implements the "Belt and Road" themed stage art creation and promotion project, the "Belt and Road" international art project, and the cultural neighborhood project, steadily advancing Asian cultural heritage protection actions. China has established 46 overseas Chinese cultural centers in 44 countries, including 32 in participating countries; and 20 tourism offices in 18 countries, including 8 in participating countries.
Educational exchange and cooperation are extensive and deep. China issued the "Action Plan for Promoting Education Cooperation in the Belt and Road Initiative," advancing international exchanges and cooperation in education. As of the end of June 2023, China had signed higher education degree mutual recognition agreements with 45 participating countries and regions. China established the "Silk Road" Chinese Government Scholarship, and Chinese provinces, the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, the Macao Special Administrative Region, universities, and research institutions have also set up scholarships for participating countries. Chinese institutions operate 313 Confucius Institutes and 315 Confucius Classrooms in 132 participating countries; the "Chinese Bridge" summer camp project has invited nearly 50,000 young people from more than 100 participating countries to visit and study in China, supporting 100,000 Chinese language enthusiasts from 143 participating countries to learn Chinese online and experience Chinese culture. Chinese institutions cooperate with universities in more than 20 participating countries across Asia, Africa, and Europe to build a number of Luban Workshops. China and UNESCO have consecutively held the "Belt and Road" Youth Creativity and Heritage Forum and related activities for seven years; they jointly established the Silk Road Young Scholars Funding Program, which has funded 24 young scholar research projects. The Chinese government’s Atomic Energy Scholarship program has trained nearly 200 master's and doctoral students in peaceful nuclear energy utilization from 26 participating countries. Participating countries also fully leverage the demonstration and leading roles of the "Belt and Road" University Strategic Alliance and the "Belt and Road" International Science Organization Alliance to deepen talent cultivation and international exchanges and cooperation in scientific research.
Media and think tank cooperation has yielded fruitful results. International media exchange and cooperation steadily advance, with participating countries successfully holding six consecutive "Belt and Road" media cooperation forums and building the "Silk Road Television International Cooperation Community." The China-Arab States Radio and Television Cooperation Forum, China-Africa Media Cooperation Forum, China-Cambodia Radio and Television Regular Cooperation Meeting, China-ASEAN Media Cooperation Forum, Lancang-Mekong Audiovisual Week, and other bilateral and multilateral cooperation mechanisms are regularly conducted. Activities of international organizations such as the Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union and the Arab States Broadcasting Union are vibrant, becoming important platforms for consolidating consensus among participating countries. China and participating countries' media jointly established the "Belt and Road" News Cooperation Alliance, actively promoting the international communication "Silk Road Award" selection activities. As of the end of June 2023, the alliance had grown to 233 media outlets from 107 countries. Think tank exchanges have become more frequent. The "Belt and Road" International Cooperation Forum Advisory Committee was established in 2018. The "Belt and Road" Think Tank Cooperation Alliance has developed 122 partners across Asia, Africa, Europe, and Latin America, and 16 Chinese and foreign think tanks jointly initiated the establishment of the "Belt and Road" International Think Tank Cooperation Committee.
People-to-people exchanges continue to deepen. Civil organizations aim to benefit the public, improve people's livelihoods, and connect hearts, continuously weaving a dense cooperation network. At the second "Belt and Road" International Cooperation Summit Forum's sub-forum on people-to-people connectivity, the China Association for International Exchange of Civil Organizations and other Chinese and foreign civil organizations jointly launched the "Silk Road Family" initiative, promoting nearly 600 partnerships between Chinese and foreign civil organizations and carrying out over 300 livelihood cooperation projects. Brand projects such as "Deep Ties in Lancang-Mekong," "International Love Packages," and "Bright Action" have had widespread impact. More than 60 cities from co-building countries have formed over 1,000 sister city relationships with multiple Chinese cities. A network of 352 civil organizations from 72 countries and regions along the Silk Road has been established, conducting over 500 livelihood projects and various activities, becoming an important platform for exchanges and cooperation among civil organizations in co-building countries.
(6) Steady Progress in New Areas of Cooperation
Co-building countries leverage their respective advantages, continuously expanding cooperation fields and innovating cooperation models, promoting positive progress in building a healthy, green, innovative, and digital Silk Road, with broader international cooperation space.
Health cooperation has achieved remarkable results. Co-building countries actively promote the construction of a "Healthy Silk Road," fostering the building of a global community of health for all and establishing close health cooperation partnerships. By the end of June 2023, China had signed a Memorandum of Understanding on health cooperation under the "Belt and Road" initiative with the World Health Organization, signed health cooperation agreements with more than 160 countries and international organizations, and initiated and participated in nine international and regional health cooperation mechanisms including China-Africa, China-Arab States, and China-ASEAN health cooperation. China, relying on the "Belt and Road" Medical Talent Training Alliance, Hospital Cooperation Alliance, Health Policy Research Network, and the China-ASEAN Healthy Silk Road Talent Training Program (2020-2022), has trained tens of thousands of professionals in health management, public health, and medical research for co-building countries. It has dispatched Chinese medical teams to 58 countries, conducted the "Bright Action" in over 30 countries, providing free cataract treatment to nearly 10,000 patients, frequently carried out "Medical Aid to Islands" activities in South Pacific island countries, and engaged in cross-border medical cooperation with countries in the Mekong River Basin, Central Asia, Mongolia, and other neighboring countries. Since the outbreak of COVID-19, China has provided anti-epidemic assistance to more than 120 co-building countries, sent 38 expert teams to 34 countries, initiated the "Belt and Road" vaccine cooperation partnership with 31 countries, supplied over 2 billion vaccine doses to co-building countries, and cooperated with more than 20 countries in vaccine production, improving vaccine accessibility and affordability in developing countries. China has signed traditional medicine cooperation documents with 14 co-building countries, with 8 countries supporting the development of traditional Chinese medicine within their legal frameworks, invested in the construction of 30 overseas traditional Chinese medicine centers, and registered and marketed over 100 types of Chinese patent medicines as pharmaceuticals in co-building countries.
Positive progress has been made in green and low-carbon development. China, co-building countries, and international organizations actively establish cooperation mechanisms for green and low-carbon development, jointly promoting green development and addressing climate change. China has successively issued the "Guiding Opinions on Promoting Green Belt and Road Construction" and "Opinions on Promoting Green Development of the Belt and Road," setting the grand goal of basically forming a green development pattern for the Belt and Road by 2030. China signed a Memorandum of Understanding on building a green Belt and Road (2017-2022) with the United Nations Environment Programme, signed environmental protection cooperation agreements with more than 30 countries and international organizations, jointly initiated the "Belt and Road" Green Development Partnership with 31 countries, established the "Belt and Road" Green Development International Alliance with over 150 partners from more than 40 countries, and established the "Belt and Road" Energy Cooperation Partnership with 32 countries. China has pledged not to build new overseas coal power projects, actively constructed green finance development platforms and international cooperation mechanisms, cooperated with co-building countries on biodiversity protection research, jointly safeguarded the ecological security of the Maritime Silk Road, built the "Belt and Road" ecological and environmental big data service platform and the "Belt and Road" environmental technology exchange and transfer center, and implemented the Green Silk Road Ambassador Program. China has implemented the "Belt and Road" South-South Cooperation Plan on Climate Change, signed 47 South-South cooperation memorandums on climate change with 39 co-building countries, cooperated with Laos, Cambodia, and Seychelles to build low-carbon demonstration zones, carried out more than 70 climate change mitigation and adaptation projects with over 30 developing countries, and trained more than 3,000 environmental management personnel and experts from over 120 countries. In May 2023, the Export-Import Bank of China, together with the China Development Bank, China Export & Credit Insurance Corporation, and more than 10 other financial institutions, issued the "Green Finance Support for Belt and Road Energy Transition Initiative," calling on all parties to continue increasing support for the green and low-carbon energy transition in co-building countries.
Scientific and technological innovation cooperation is accelerating. Co-building countries strengthen innovation cooperation, accelerate technology transfer and knowledge sharing, continuously optimize the innovation environment, gather innovation resources, actively carry out major scientific and technological cooperation and jointly cultivate scientific and technological innovation talents, promoting the enhancement of scientific and technological innovation capabilities. In October 2016, China issued the "Special Plan for Promoting Scientific and Technological Innovation Cooperation in Belt and Road Construction"; in May 2017, the "Belt and Road" Science and Technology Innovation Action Plan was officially launched, improving the innovation capacity of co-building countries through practical measures such as joint research, technology transfer, science and technology cultural exchanges, and science park cooperation. By the end of June 2023, China had signed intergovernmental science and technology cooperation agreements with more than 80 co-building countries, and the "Belt and Road" International Science Organization Alliance (ANSO) had 58 member units. Since 2013, China has supported over 10,000 young scientists from co-building countries to conduct short-term scientific research and exchanges in China, cumulatively trained more than 16,000 technical and management personnel from co-building countries, built nine multinational technology transfer platforms targeting ASEAN, South Asia, Arab countries, Africa, Latin America, and other regions, helped more than 50 African countries establish over 20 agricultural technology demonstration centers, and launched the construction of more than 50 "Belt and Road" joint laboratories in agriculture, new energy, health, and other fields. China signed the "Agreement on Strengthening Intellectual Property Cooperation under the Belt and Road" with the World Intellectual Property Organization and its revised and extended supplementary agreements, co-hosted two high-level Belt and Road intellectual property meetings, and issued the "Joint Initiative" and "Joint Statement" to strengthen intellectual property cooperation; it has established intellectual property cooperation relationships with more than 50 co-building countries and international organizations, jointly creating an innovation and business environment that respects the value of knowledge.
The construction highlights of the "Digital Silk Road" are numerous. Co-building countries strengthen connectivity in digital rules and standards, promote regional digital policy coordination, and jointly create an open, fair, just, and non-discriminatory digital development environment. By the end of 2022, China had signed Memorandums of Understanding on "Digital Silk Road" cooperation with 17 countries, e-commerce cooperation MOUs with 30 countries, and MOUs on strengthening investment cooperation in the digital economy with 18 countries and regions. It proposed and promoted cooperation initiatives such as the "Global Data Security Initiative," the "Belt and Road Digital Economy International Cooperation Initiative," the "China-ASEAN Initiative on Establishing a Digital Economy Partnership," the "China-Arab Data Security Cooperation Initiative," the "China+Central Asia Five Countries Data Security Cooperation Initiative," and the "BRICS Digital Economy Partnership Framework," and led the formulation of the "Cross-border E-commerce Standards Framework." It actively promotes digital infrastructure interconnectivity, accelerates the construction of digital transport corridors, achieves positive progress in multiple international submarine cable projects, builds 130 sets of cross-border land cable systems, widely constructs 5G base stations, data centers, cloud computing centers, smart cities, and digitally upgrades traditional infrastructure such as ports, railways, roads, energy, and water conservancy. Key projects such as the "China-ASEAN Information Harbor," "Digitalized China-Europe Railway Express," and the China-Arab Online Silk Road are comprehensively advancing, and the "Digital Silk Road Earth Big Data Platform" achieves multilingual data sharing. The construction of the spatial information corridor has achieved remarkable results. China has built satellite telecommunication hubs connecting South Asia, Africa, Europe, and the Americas. The China-Pakistan (West) Earth Resource series of remote sensing satellite data are widely used in multiple countries and fields. The BeiDou-3 global satellite navigation system provides comprehensive services for China-Europe Railway Express, maritime shipping, and other fields. China and multiple co-building countries and regions jointly develop and launch communication or remote sensing satellites, build satellite ground receiving stations, and other space infrastructure. Relying on the United Nations Regional Centre for Space Science and Technology Education in Asia and the Pacific (China), a large number of aerospace talents are trained for co-building countries. It actively co-builds the China-Sea Joint Lunar and Deep Space Exploration Center, China-Arab Space Debris Joint Observation Center, Lancang-Mekong Earth Observation Data Cooperation Center, China-ASEAN Satellite Application Information Center, China-Africa Satellite Remote Sensing Application Cooperation Center, and utilizes platforms such as the High-Resolution Satellite 16-meter Data Sharing Service Platform, the "Belt and Road" Typical Meteorological Disaster Analysis and Early Warning Platform, and the Natural Resources Satellite Remote Sensing Cloud Service Platform to serve more co-building countries.
IV. Injecting Positive Energy into World Peace and Development
Over the past 10 years, the joint construction of the "Belt and Road" has achieved remarkable results, opening up new spaces for global economic growth, building new platforms for international trade and investment, enhancing the development capacity and people's well-being of relevant countries, expanding new practices for improving the global governance system, and bringing more certainty and stability to a world full of turmoil. The joint construction of the "Belt and Road" has developed China and benefited the world.
(1) Bringing Tangible Benefits to Partner Countries
Development is the eternal theme of human society. The joint construction of the "Belt and Road" focuses on this fundamental issue of development, striving to solve the shortcomings and bottlenecks that restrict development, creating new economic growth engines, new development environments and spaces for co-building countries, enhancing their development capacity, boosting their confidence, improving people's well-being, contributing to solving global development imbalances, and promoting all countries to jointly move toward modernization.
Activating the development momentum of co-building countries. Over the past 10 years, the joint construction of the "Belt and Road" has focused on solving the main bottlenecks restricting connectivity and economic development in most developing countries, implementing a large number of infrastructure projects, promoting significant progress in railway, highway, shipping, pipeline, energy, communication, and basic public service infrastructure construction in co-building countries, improving local production and living conditions and development environments, and enhancing the economic development's self-sustaining capacity. Some long-term projects with far-reaching services are like seeds sown, with comprehensive benefits gradually emerging. Infrastructure connectivity has effectively reduced the cost of participating in international trade for co-building countries, improved their ability and level of access to the world economy, and stimulated greater development potential and stronger development momentum. Research by the Asian Development Bank shows that for landlocked countries, every 10% reduction in infrastructure trade costs increases exports by 20%. Industrial capacity cooperation has promoted the upgrading of industrial structures in co-building countries, improved levels of industrialization, digitalization, and informatization, fostered competitive industrial systems, enhanced the breadth and depth of participation in international division of labor and cooperation, and brought more development opportunities and space. China actively carries out international cooperation in emergency management, dispatching rescue teams to Nepal, Mozambique, Turkey, and other countries for humanitarian rescue operations in earthquakes, floods, etc., and providing emergency humanitarian material aid and expert technical guidance to Tonga, Madagascar, and other countries.
Enhancing poverty reduction capacity in co-building countries. Developing countries still face food issues. China actively participates in global food and agriculture governance, releasing the "Vision and Action for Jointly Promoting Agricultural Cooperation under the Belt and Road" with relevant countries, signing over 100 agricultural and fishery cooperation documents with nearly 90 co-building countries and international organizations, achieving agricultural product trade worth 139.4 billion USD with co-building countries, dispatching more than 2,000 agricultural experts and technicians to over 70 countries and regions, promoting and demonstrating over 1,500 agricultural technologies such as fungal grass and hybrid rice in multiple countries, helping rural poverty reduction in Asia, Africa, the South Pacific, Latin America, and the Caribbean, and promoting modern agricultural development and increased farmer income in co-building countries. Promoting employment is an important way to reduce poverty. In the process of jointly building the "Belt and Road," China and relevant countries actively promote industrial park construction, guiding enterprises to create jobs for local residents through high-level industrial cooperation, achieving "one person employed, whole family lifted out of poverty." A McKinsey report shows that the localization rate of employees in Chinese enterprises in Africa reaches 89%, effectively driving local employment. The World Bank predicts that by 2030, investments related to the joint construction of the "Belt and Road" are expected to lift 7.6 million people in co-building countries out of extreme poverty and 32 million out of moderate poverty.
Significant results in livelihood projects. Repairing and maintaining bridges to solve residents' travel difficulties; digging wells to meet villagers' water needs; installing street lights to illuminate pedestrians' way home at night... These "small but beautiful" and "beneficial and practical" livelihood and people's projects have helped local people solve urgent problems, improve living conditions, enhance people's well-being in co-building countries, and bring tangible senses of gain, happiness, and security to people in various countries. Over the past 10 years, Chinese enterprises have implemented more than 300 projects such as "Love and Assistance for the Needy," "Rehabilitation and Medical Assistance," and "Happy Homeland" in co-building countries, aided the construction of the African Disease Prevention and Control Center headquarters, the Gwadar Bo'ai Medical Emergency Center in Pakistan, helped Cameroon, Ethiopia, Djibouti, and other countries solve drinking water problems, and more. The "Silk Road Family" livelihood cooperation projects cover more than 20 fields including poverty alleviation and disaster relief, humanitarian aid, environmental protection, and women's exchange and cooperation, producing widespread impact.
(2) Adding Vitality to Economic Globalization
Against the backdrop of rising anti-globalization trends, the joint construction of the "Belt and Road" is committed to achieving global connectivity and linked development, further opening up the main artery of economic globalization, smoothing flows of information, capital, technology, products, industries, and personnel, promoting broader and higher-level international cooperation, expanding and fairly sharing the "cake" of economic globalization, and striving to build a global development pattern that is inclusive, balanced, coordinated, cooperative, win-win, and jointly prosperous.
Enhancing global development momentum. The joint construction of the "Belt and Road" connects the vibrant East Asian economic circle, the developed European economic circle, and the vast hinterland countries with huge economic development potential, further tightening economic cooperation networks with Africa and Latin America, promoting the formation of a new global development pattern that fully connects the Eurasian continent with the Pacific, Indian, and Atlantic Oceans, integrating land and sea, expanding the scope and coverage of international division of labor in a broader economic geographic space, enlarging the world market, and ultimately promoting new growth in the world economy. At the same time, the joint construction of the "Belt and Road" has brought a catalytic effect on international investment through infrastructure connectivity, stimulating global interest and enthusiasm for infrastructure investment, which benefits the economic growth and development gains of co-building countries, effectively addresses the insufficient supply of international public goods, and provides sustained momentum for world economic growth.
Deepen regional economic cooperation. The joint construction of the "Belt and Road" relies on infrastructure connectivity to promote comprehensive and multi-field connectivity among countries, expanding from points to lines and then to areas, gradually enhancing the development radiation effect. It promotes coordination of economic policies and alignment of institutional mechanisms among countries, innovates cooperation models, carries out broader, higher-level, and deeper regional cooperation, jointly creating an open, inclusive, balanced, and mutually beneficial regional economic cooperation framework. This facilitates the orderly and free flow of economic factors, efficient allocation of resources, and deep market integration, enhancing the economic and trade connectivity, activity, and the overall position of participating countries in the global industrial, supply, and value chains. Countries fully utilize their own factor endowments to strengthen the integration, interaction, and coordination of industrial chains, promote complementary industrial advantages, improve division of labor efficiency, and jointly advance industrial chain upgrades; break down trade barriers and market monopolies, unleash consumption potential, promote cross-border consumption, jointly expand market scale, and form a large regional market; through technology transfer and cooperation in industrial collaboration, establish technological interaction and mutual dependence, jointly improve innovation capabilities, and promote leapfrog development.
Promote global trade development. The joint construction of the "Belt and Road" advances infrastructure construction such as transportation and information in a planned and stepwise manner, and promotes trade and investment liberalization and facilitation. It eliminates transportation bottlenecks and trade and investment cooperation barriers within participating countries, across countries, and regions, greatly improving the convenience of foreign trade and cross-border logistics as well as the efficiency of domestic and international cooperation. It builds a comprehensive, multi-level, and complex trade connectivity network, promoting the establishment of a new global trade pattern and playing an important role in promoting global trade development. At the same time, the initiative enhances the attractiveness of participating countries and regions to high-quality global capital and improves their position in global cross-border direct investment. In 2022, Southeast Asia's cross-border direct investment inflow accounted for 17.2% of the global total, an increase of 9 percentage points compared to 2013; foreign direct investment inflows into Kazakhstan grew by 83% year-on-year, reaching a historic high. The World Bank's report "The Economics of the Belt and Road: Opportunities and Risks of Transport Corridors" shows that before the initiative, trade in the six major economic corridors was 30% below potential, and foreign direct investment was 70% below potential; since implementation, infrastructure construction alone has reduced global trade costs by 1.8%, reduced trade costs on the China-Central Asia-West Asia economic corridor by 10%, making important contributions to global trade facilitation and economic growth; it is expected to increase trade in participating countries by 2.8%-9.7%, global trade by 1.7%-6.2%, and global income by 0.7%-2.9%.
Maintain global supply chain stability. The joint construction of the "Belt and Road" is committed to building efficient and interconnected international corridors, playing an important role in maintaining the stability and smooth operation of global supply chains. During the COVID-19 pandemic, ports and logistics companies canceled or reduced shipping and freight services, severely impacting the global supply chain dominated by maritime transport. The China-Europe Railway Express, as a flagship product of the initiative, has effectively enhanced the connectivity of the Eurasian continental railway and the development of multimodal transport such as sea-rail, road-rail, and air-rail, opening new supply chain channels across Eurasia. Combined with projects like "Customs-Rail Connectivity" and innovations in customs clearance models, it has made important contributions to ensuring the stable operation of the global economy. Several internationally renowned logistics associations have publicly stated that the China-Europe Railway Express provides a reliable logistics solution that effectively alleviates global supply chain tensions and enhances international logistics security.
(3) Providing New Solutions for Improving Global Governance
Addressing deficits is a severe global challenge. The joint construction of the "Belt and Road" adheres to genuine multilateralism, practices the global governance concept of consultation, contribution, and shared benefits, insists on dialogue rather than confrontation, dismantling walls rather than building them, integration rather than decoupling, inclusiveness rather than exclusiveness, providing a new paradigm for inter-state exchanges and promoting the global governance system toward a more just and reasonable direction.
Global governance concepts gain wider recognition. Core concepts of the joint construction of the "Belt and Road," such as consultation, contribution, and shared benefits, have been incorporated into important documents of international organizations and mechanisms like the United Nations and the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation. The concept of a community with a shared future for mankind has deeply taken root. Bilateral communities with shared futures such as China-Laos and China-Pakistan are increasing, and multilateral communities with shared futures such as China-Africa, China-Arab, China-Latin America, China-ASEAN, China-Central Asia, and China-Pacific Island countries are steadily advancing. Communities in cyberspace, oceans, and human health are also taking root. The 2020 "Global Survey on China's National Image" released by the Contemporary China and the World Research Institute shows that the "Belt and Road" initiative is the most recognized Chinese concept and proposition overseas, with over 70% of overseas respondents acknowledging its positive significance for individuals, countries, and global governance. The Bruegel Institute, a European think tank, released the "Global Perception Trends of the Belt and Road Initiative" report in April 2023, indicating that countries worldwide generally hold a positive view of the initiative, especially developing countries from Central Asia to Sub-Saharan Africa have deep affection for it.
Multilateral governance mechanisms are more improved. The joint construction of the "Belt and Road" adheres to the principles of mutual respect and equality, insists on openness, inclusiveness, and mutual benefit, upholds international fairness and justice, and safeguards the development rights and interests of developing countries, embodying a vivid practice of multilateralism. It firmly upholds the authority and status of the United Nations, focuses on consolidating and strengthening the status and effectiveness of global multilateral governance platforms such as the World Trade Organization, injecting strong momentum into improving existing multilateral governance mechanisms. The initiative actively promotes the construction of new multilateral governance mechanisms such as the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, accelerates joint efforts with partners to advance governance mechanisms in emerging fields like deep-sea, polar regions, outer space, cyberspace, and artificial intelligence, enriching and expanding the connotation and practice of multilateralism. It enhances the status and role of developing countries and emerging economies in the world market system, increases their voice in regional and global economic governance, and incorporates more concerns and demands of developing countries into the global agenda, which is significant for reforming and improving global governance.
Innovation and optimization of global governance rules. The joint construction of the "Belt and Road" fully considers differences among partners in economic development levels, factor endowments, cultural and religious traditions, does not preset rules or standards, nor draw ideological lines, but based on cooperation demands and actual situations, through full consultation and in-depth communication, jointly researches and creates rules for new issues in practice. Participating countries achieve strategic alignment, planning alignment, mechanism alignment, project and rule standard alignment and mutual recognition, not only optimizing cooperation rules of the initiative, promoting the shift from commodity and factor flow openness to rule and system openness, but also forming some widely applicable rules and standards, effectively filling gaps in the global governance system in these areas.
(4) Gathering Civilizational Strength for Human Progress
Civilizational exchange and mutual learning is an important driving force for the progress of human civilization and world peace and development. Against the backdrop of some countries clinging to "either-or" and "black-or-white" thinking, concocting theories of "clash of civilizations" and "civilizational superiority," and engaging in ideological confrontation, the joint construction of the "Belt and Road" adheres to the view of civilization based on equality, mutual learning, dialogue, and inclusiveness, insists on promoting the common values of all humanity, jointly builds a path of civilizational exchange and mutual learning where each civilization appreciates its own beauty and the beauty of others, and promotes a new situation of cultural exchange, cultural integration, and people-to-people connectivity among countries worldwide.
The mechanism for cultural exchanges is increasingly improving. The field of cultural exchanges is broad and rich, involving political parties, culture, art, sports, education, and other aspects. The global influence of various multilateral and bilateral political party exchange mechanisms such as the Summit of the Communist Party of China and World Political Party Leaders, and the High-Level Dialogue between the Communist Party of China and World Political Parties continues to grow. The leading role of high-level inter-party exchanges has been fully utilized, gathering consensus and strength to enhance people-to-people bonds. Various cooperation mechanisms such as the "Belt and Road" Think Tank Cooperation Alliance, the "Belt and Road" Tax Administration Capacity Promotion Alliance, the "Belt and Road" International Scientific Organization Alliance, the "Belt and Road" Medical Talent Training Alliance, the Silk Road International Theatre Alliance, and the Silk Road Museum Alliance have emerged intensively, forming a diverse, interactive, and flourishing pattern of cultural exchanges, effectively promoting mutual understanding, respect, and appreciation among the peoples of various countries. China, together with Kyrgyzstan, Iran, and other Central and West Asian countries, jointly initiated the establishment of the Asian Cultural Heritage Protection Alliance, creating the first international cooperation mechanism in the field of Asian cultural heritage to jointly protect cultural heritage as a tangible carrier of civilization. The cultural heritage protection projects implemented, such as the restoration of the ancient city of Khiva, have been highly praised by UNESCO.
Jointly creating a number of high-quality brand projects and activities. The Silk Road (Dunhuang) International Cultural Expo, the "Belt and Road" Great Wall International Folk Culture and Arts Festival, the Silk Road International Arts Festival, the Maritime Silk Road International Arts Festival, the "Belt and Road" Youth Storytelling Sessions, and the "Ten Thousand Miles Tea Road" Cultural Tourism Expo have become popular event brands, attracting active participation from large numbers of people. Cultural exchange projects such as "Silk Road Family," "Health Care Package," "Luban Workshop," "Fountain of Happiness," "Light Journey," "Love Package," "Torch International Scholarship Program," "Traditional Chinese Medicine Style Tour," and "Confucius Classroom" have won widespread acclaim. The continuously emerging wonderful activities, high-quality brands, and landmark projects have become important carriers for all parties to jointly promote people-to-people bonds, enhancing the sense of closeness and recognition among the peoples of various countries for jointly building the "Belt and Road."
Youth power is widely gathered. The future of jointly building the "Belt and Road" belongs to the youth. Over the past 10 years, young people from participating countries have actively carried out cultural exchanges and livelihood cooperation through practical actions, gathering tremendous youthful strength to promote people-to-people bonds and achieve common development. The "China Youth Global Partnership Action" has received widespread global response, with youth organizations from more than 100 countries and international organizations establishing exchange and cooperation relations with China. The "Belt and Road" Youth Storytelling Sessions have been held 16 times consecutively, with over 1,500 youth representatives from various countries enthusiastically participating. They share stories and experiences around themes such as poverty alleviation, climate change, and anti-epidemic cooperation, vividly illustrating how to view the world from perspectives of appreciation, mutual learning, and sharing. Activities such as the "Silk Road Incubator" Youth Entrepreneurship Program and the China-Central and Eastern European Countries Youth Maker International Forum have been successfully carried out, becoming important platforms for youth from participating countries to deepen friendly exchanges and cooperation.
V. Promoting High-quality and Steady Progress of Jointly Building the Belt and Road
The practice over the past 10 years has fully proven that jointly building the "Belt and Road" follows the trend, wins the people's hearts, benefits people's livelihoods, and serves the world. It is a path toward modernization shared by all countries and a hopeful road for humanity's better future, possessing strong resilience, vigorous vitality, and broad development prospects.
Currently, the world has entered a new period of turbulence and transformation, with accelerated competition among major powers, persistent geopolitical tensions, and a long and difficult global economic recovery. Cold War mentality and zero-sum thinking have resurfaced, unilateralism, protectionism, and hegemonism are rampant, populism is on the rise, and competition brought by a new round of technological revolution and industrial transformation is unprecedentedly fierce. Deficits in peace, development, security, and governance continue to worsen, and both foreseeable and unforeseeable global risks have significantly increased, posing unprecedented challenges to humanity. Some countries have generalized the concept of "national security" and, under the pretext of "risk reduction," have actually engaged in "decoupling and chain cutting," undermining the international economic and trade order and market rules, endangering the security and stability of international industrial and supply chains, blocking international cultural and scientific exchanges and cooperation, and creating obstacles to humanity's long-term development. In an uncertain and unstable world, countries urgently need to bridge differences through dialogue, oppose division through unity, and promote development through cooperation. The significance of jointly building the "Belt and Road" is increasingly evident, and its prospects are more promising.
From a long-term perspective, the trend of world multipolarization has not changed, the general direction of economic globalization has not changed, the era trend of peace, development, cooperation, and win-win has not changed, the desire of peoples worldwide for a better life has not changed, the overall rise momentum of developing countries has not changed, and China's status and responsibility as the largest developing country have not changed. Although jointly building the "Belt and Road" faces some difficulties and challenges, as long as all countries act from their long-term interests and the overall interests of humanity, jointly manage risks, respond to challenges, and promote cooperation, the future of jointly building the "Belt and Road" is full of hope.
As a responsible major developing country, China will continue to regard jointly building the "Belt and Road" as the overall plan for opening up and external cooperation, as the top-level design for China and the world to achieve an open and win-win path, implement broader, wider, and deeper opening up, steadily expand institutional opening in rules, regulations, management, standards, and other areas, build a higher-level open economic system, and achieve high-quality development through opening up, providing new opportunities for the world through China's new development. China is willing to increase resource investment in global development cooperation, do its best to support and help developing countries accelerate development, enhance the voice of emerging market countries and developing countries in global governance, and make positive contributions to promoting common development of countries worldwide. China sincerely welcomes more countries and international organizations to join the "Belt and Road" family, welcomes all initiatives that truly help developing countries build infrastructure and promote common development, and jointly promote global connectivity and sustainable development.
On the path of high-quality jointly building the "Belt and Road," every participating country is an equal participant, contributor, and beneficiary. China is willing to work with all parties to strengthen confidence, maintain determination, continue to advance international cooperation on jointly building the "Belt and Road" based on the principles of consultation, joint construction, and shared benefits, consolidate the cooperation foundation, expand cooperation fields, optimize cooperation projects, jointly create new development opportunities, seek new development momentum, explore new development space, share new development achievements, build closer partnerships in health cooperation, connectivity, green development, openness and inclusiveness, innovation cooperation, and clean joint construction, promote high-quality development of jointly building the "Belt and Road," and inject new strong momentum into building a community with a shared future for mankind.
Conclusion
One concept has activated over two thousand years of civilization memory; one initiative has inspired the enthusiasm of more than 150 countries to realize their dreams.
After 10 years of jointly building the "Belt and Road," it has brought remarkable and profound changes to the world, becoming a milestone event in the history of human social development.
As a long-term, transnational, systematic world project and a century project, the first 10 years of jointly building the "Belt and Road" is only the prologue. Starting again from a new historical starting point, jointly building the "Belt and Road" will be more innovative and dynamic, more open and inclusive, opening new windows of opportunity for China and the world.
Looking to the future, jointly building the "Belt and Road" will still face some difficulties, but as long as all parties join hands and persevere, they can continuously overcome various risks and challenges, achieve higher-quality consultation, joint construction, and sharing, and make the "Belt and Road" increasingly prosperous and broader.
China is willing to work with all countries to unswervingly promote the high-quality joint construction of the "Belt and Road", implement the Global Development Initiative, the Global Security Initiative, and the Global Civilization Initiative, build a world of lasting peace, universal security, common prosperity, openness and inclusiveness, cleanliness and beauty, pass on the flame of peace from generation to generation, continuously drive development, and let the light of civilization shine brightly, jointly painting a beautiful picture of a community with a shared future for mankind!
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