There is eleven things you need to know about The Belt and Road:
1. The Belt and Road Initiative is not a modern version of the US' Marshall Plan.
China has no intention of challenging the current US-dominated global economic and political systems
, and its Belt and Road Initiative－the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century Maritime Silk
Road－is by no means comparable to the United States' Marshall Plan, which is considered, to some
extent, to have led to the Cold War.Although China is promoting a series of bilateral and regional
free trade agreements, its objective is not similar to the British Empire's pre-World War II
"Imperial Preference", and is not to create a world market parallel to that led by the US.
The US-led international financial system is unfair, but it is not in China's interest to change the
system. More importantly, any drastic change in the system would create uncertainties and risks,
which no economy wants.China believes in reform, and it is optimistic about making the international
financial system more efficient by supplementing the roles of the International Monetary Fund,
the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank. It knows that only a multilateral trade system can
meet its demand for an expanding global market, which is why it has an open mind on many
Western-dominated international trade arrangements, while the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank
will take an inclusive approach to create an improved international financial system.
2. The initiative will be connected with the Eurasian Economic Union.
With the same aim as the Belt and Road Initiative, the Eurasian Economic Union was formed in 2015
as a purely economic union, which currently includes five countries. The EEU aims to break barriers
to market access in the five member nations and further deepen economic cooperation within an
integrated single market of 183 million people. To meet the expectations of the leaders of China and
Russia－who are the pioneers of the Belt and Road Initiative and the EEU respectively－the two
initiatives should find ways to integrate, based on natural geographic peculiarities and
complementary advantages. We need to meet each other more regularly to research how to harmonize the
bilateral procedures that already exist between China and members of the EEU. The Chinese leadership
is persuasive and expectant in its commitment to the success of this initiative, and things will
move in the right direction with financial and human resources, and knowledge. Facing a large
international community, China needs to learn how to do things in the right way given its long and
rich,but mainly inward-oriented, history, and to accept its leadership role. The initiative, linking
China to Eurasia and Europe, is not at all only about infrastructure, but also about soft power and
advancing the understanding of different people and countries along the two ancient trade routes.
It's not a traditional bilateral system, but a truly regional, multinational, multilateral network
and thus, it needs to be designed with precision.
3. The initiative brings a new mindset to global economic governance.
Despite the recovering US economy, Washington under the watch of US President Donald Trump is poised
to accord priority to economic issues at home, rather than abroad. That, to some extent, means
Beijing is required to propose a plan to address the economic woes haunting many other countries.
The implementation of the Belt and Road Initiative is a boon to sluggish global growth. It is
conducive to expanding global demand and revitalizing global growth, marking a breakthrough in both
China's interaction with other economies and global economic governance. In particular, China's
proposal to explore third-party market cooperation could bring benefits to Western nations and
developing countries along the Belt and Road, without causing a clash of interests. Projects
involving China, France and some French-speaking African countries are a case in point.For emerging
economies, the initiative means more investment and bilateral trade deals, which may grant them
greater economic sway. For countries that are less industrialized and heavily reliant on
manufacturing, China's financial and technological assistance following its Belt and Road projects
will be of great value.