Page 35 - Azerbaijan State University of Economics

Fabio Massimo Parenti: Understanding the Global Shift China’s Development and The Belt
and Road Initiative

society, through the advancement of the modernization process in all respects. In
addition, in the 19th Congress, the party defined and remarked other two ambitious
goals: building new forms of international relations, centered on win-win
cooperation and mutual respect, and working hard to create a community of shared
future for the humanity (Xi 2017a). These macro objectives find their execution at
territorial level, namely, in the multiplicity of planning programs with different time-
reference (one, five, ten years programs). At regional, national, but also international
level. The “go west” and “go abroad” strategies, developed in the last 20 years are
good examples. They are behind the launch, 5 years ago, of the Belt and Road
Initiative (BRI), said the “New Silk Road”.

In the current global problems - wars, terrorism, climate change, economic turmoil -
no country can manage alone, surely it cannot do it by withdrawing into its own
isolation. At value and methodological level, the Chinese strategies of global
projection are based on a series of principles. According to the last Congress
document (2017a), they derive from the concept of mutual respect and dialogue
between peers. This is the core of the alternative idea of globalization, clarified by
President Xi in the now famous and historic speech held in Davos 2017. Mutual
respect is the basis of the principles of non-interference, non-imposition, rejection of
the use of force, win-win cooperation, and equality between countries. It is at the
basis of a genuine process of democratization of international relations.
Communication and dialogue between peers versus military confrontation,
partnership versus alliances, mutual learning versus confrontation, in order to
overcome the cold war mentality. Xi Jinping clearly stated that China “oppose acts
that impose one’s will on others or interfere in the internal affairs of others as well
as the practice of the strong bullying the weak”. Without mutual respect, this
approach in the relations between states and civilizations cannot succeed.

The Belt and Road Initiative is an important and challenging proof for both China
and the world community as a whole.

BRI: Geopolitical Meaning and Soft Power

The international forum on BRI held in Beijing in May 2017 had a great
international resonance and in a certain sense represented a celebration of the first
successes achieved since 2013 (year of the initiative’s official launch). It can be
asserted that this mega-project, with its contours in constant definition, is the most
evident geo-economic-political manifestation of the pursuit of the two Congress
macro-objectives mentioned above.

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