The Great Game Changer: Belt and Road Intiative (BRI; OBOR)
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Shotgunner51
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Leaders take group photo at Belt and Road forum
Source: Xinhua| 2017-05-15 18:44:55|Editor: MJ
Chinese President Xi Jinping, foreign delegation heads and guests pose for a group photo at the Leaders' Roundtable Summit of the Belt and Road Forum (BRF) for International Cooperation at Yanqi Lake International Convention Center in Beijing, capital of China, May 15, 2017. (Xinhua/Yao Dawei)
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2017-05/15/c_136285795.htm
Source: Xinhua| 2017-05-15 18:44:55|Editor: MJ
Chinese President Xi Jinping, foreign delegation heads and guests pose for a group photo at the Leaders' Roundtable Summit of the Belt and Road Forum (BRF) for International Cooperation at Yanqi Lake International Convention Center in Beijing, capital of China, May 15, 2017. (Xinhua/Yao Dawei)
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2017-05/15/c_136285795.htm
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JSCh
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More foreigners seeking medical care in Xinjiang
By Cui Jia (China Daily) 10:35, May 17, 2017
A nurse from the Hospital of Xinjiang Traditional Uyghur Medicine, attends to a mother from Uzbekistan, along with her daughter, who was born in the facility in Urumqi, capital of the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region.[Photo/Xinhua]
Region plans to expand services for people along Silk Road routes
More patients from Central Asian nations sought medical care in the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region last year because of its high quality healthcare and its proximity, according to a senior official.
Foreign patients accessed medical services at hospitals in Urumqi, the regional capital, either in person or via an online diagnosis and consultation platform 8,600 times, an increase of more than 20 percent over 2015, said Liu Chengyuan, deputy mayor of Urumqi.
"We expect to see more foreign patients this year because coming to Urumqi for surgeries and health checks has become a popular trend," he said. "People have been drawn to Xinjiang to seek help from neurosurgeons and orthopedic surgeons. They are also interested in traditional Chinese and Uygur medicine."
As a core area of the Belt and Road Initiative, Xinjiang plans to become an international medical care center to serve foreign patients, especially those from neighboring countries.
The region borders a number of countries, including Russia, Kazakhstan and Tajikistan. It is home to 14 diverse peoples, including Uygur, Kazakh and Tajik ethnic groups－people who speak the same language and have customs similar to neighboring countries.
"The region has natural and cultural advantages of providing medical care to people from countries involved in the initiative," said Peng Yong, deputy director of the Xinjiang Health and Family Planning Commission.
Five major hospitals in Urumqi have provided 500 beds for international patients and are equipped with nurses who can speak Russian and Kazakh. Foreign patients can also receive fast-track services in those hospitals, Peng said, adding that more than 30 hospitals around Xinjiang also plan to launch services for foreigners.
In addition to the public, senior figures from Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan have visited the region 25 times to receive health checks since 2015, Peng added.
The region's online diagnosis and consultation platform includes 11 top hospitals in China, 17 in Kyrgyzstan, two in Georgia and five in Kazakhstan. Fifteen hospitals in Tajikistan also plan to join the platform, Peng said.
Liu said the platform will eventually include 100 hospitals to provide timely help to foreign patients.
"Medical care is a basic and common need. Providing lifesaving medical care to foreign patients can create mutual trust," Peng said.
By Cui Jia (China Daily) 10:35, May 17, 2017
Region plans to expand services for people along Silk Road routes
More patients from Central Asian nations sought medical care in the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region last year because of its high quality healthcare and its proximity, according to a senior official.
Foreign patients accessed medical services at hospitals in Urumqi, the regional capital, either in person or via an online diagnosis and consultation platform 8,600 times, an increase of more than 20 percent over 2015, said Liu Chengyuan, deputy mayor of Urumqi.
"We expect to see more foreign patients this year because coming to Urumqi for surgeries and health checks has become a popular trend," he said. "People have been drawn to Xinjiang to seek help from neurosurgeons and orthopedic surgeons. They are also interested in traditional Chinese and Uygur medicine."
As a core area of the Belt and Road Initiative, Xinjiang plans to become an international medical care center to serve foreign patients, especially those from neighboring countries.
The region borders a number of countries, including Russia, Kazakhstan and Tajikistan. It is home to 14 diverse peoples, including Uygur, Kazakh and Tajik ethnic groups－people who speak the same language and have customs similar to neighboring countries.
"The region has natural and cultural advantages of providing medical care to people from countries involved in the initiative," said Peng Yong, deputy director of the Xinjiang Health and Family Planning Commission.
Five major hospitals in Urumqi have provided 500 beds for international patients and are equipped with nurses who can speak Russian and Kazakh. Foreign patients can also receive fast-track services in those hospitals, Peng said, adding that more than 30 hospitals around Xinjiang also plan to launch services for foreigners.
In addition to the public, senior figures from Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan have visited the region 25 times to receive health checks since 2015, Peng added.
The region's online diagnosis and consultation platform includes 11 top hospitals in China, 17 in Kyrgyzstan, two in Georgia and five in Kazakhstan. Fifteen hospitals in Tajikistan also plan to join the platform, Peng said.
Liu said the platform will eventually include 100 hospitals to provide timely help to foreign patients.
"Medical care is a basic and common need. Providing lifesaving medical care to foreign patients can create mutual trust," Peng said.
Shotgunner51
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Greece and China sign 3-year action plan for Railroads, Ports and Airports
TornosNews.gr 16.05.2017 | 17:49
Call issued to Greek and Chinese enterprises to expand cooperation between the two countries in the domains of infrastructure, shipping and telecoms
Greece and China signed a “three-year action plan” for joint projects over the weekend that will see Greece claim a share of Beijing’s 100-billion-euro investment program for the countries on the so-called New Silk Road.
In his meeting with Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras on Saturday, Chinese President Xi Jinping issued a call to Greek and Chinese enterprises to expand cooperation between the two countries in the domains of infrastructure, shipping and telecoms.
http://www.tornosnews.gr/en/tourism...on-plan-for-railroads-ports-and-airports.html
http://www.ekathimerini.com/218464/...thens-and-beijing-sign-three-year-action-plan
TornosNews.gr 16.05.2017 | 17:49
Call issued to Greek and Chinese enterprises to expand cooperation between the two countries in the domains of infrastructure, shipping and telecoms
Greece and China signed a “three-year action plan” for joint projects over the weekend that will see Greece claim a share of Beijing’s 100-billion-euro investment program for the countries on the so-called New Silk Road.
The plan signed is simply a statement of intent and does not come with any contracts or specific commitments. However, it concerns investments in transport, energy and telecommunications, “whose successful implementation could bring investments running into billions of euros,” according to Deputy Economy Minister Stergios Pitsiorlas, who signed the action plan on Greece’s behalf.
“There are investment plans on the table concerning the rail network, ports and airports, and stretching to telecom and energy network interconnections and investment in power plants, including those using renewable energy sources,” added Pitsiorlas, the former head of the state privatization fund (TAIPED).
In his meeting with Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras on Saturday, Chinese President Xi Jinping issued a call to Greek and Chinese enterprises to expand cooperation between the two countries in the domains of infrastructure, shipping and telecoms.
http://www.tornosnews.gr/en/tourism...on-plan-for-railroads-ports-and-airports.html
http://www.ekathimerini.com/218464/...thens-and-beijing-sign-three-year-action-plan
Devil Soul
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China’s new world order
ZAHID HUSSAINUPDATED ABOUT 4 HOURS AGO
64 COMMENTS
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The writer is an author and journalist.
CHINA recently hosted 29 heads of state and government at the Belt and Road Forum, reinforcing the country’s claim to leadership of an emerging geopolitical and economic world order. The summit conference that also attracted representatives of more than 40 other countries and multilateral financial agencies was the clearest expression yet of China breaking out of its old foreign policy mould that had restrained it from attempting a global role.
China’s multibillion-dollar One Belt, One Road (OBOR) infrastructure development project linking the old Silk Road with Europe, is a manifestation of China’s growing geopolitical ambitions. A brainchild of President Xi Jinping, perhaps, the most powerful Chinese leader after Mao Zedong, OBOR has now been under development for four years, spanning 68 countries and accounting for up to 40 per cent of global GDP.
President Xi’s ambition of propelling China to centre stage of the global power game represents a sharp departure from the approach of previous Chinese leaders who strictly adhered to Deng Xiaoping’s tenet to “hide our capabilities and bide our time, never try to take the lead”. Thus over the past two decades, China has avoided being drawn into global conflicts and has completely focused its energies on development that helped it to become an economic superpower.
China’s push to take the world leadership has come at a time when a strong anti-globalisation wave is sweeping the Western world that is showing a growing tendency of returning to more protectionist regimes. The United States under the Trump administration with its inward-looking approach has virtually abandoned the mantle of globalisation thus ceding greater space to Beijing’s assertion.
It is evident that OBOR is not just about infrastructure development.
It is not surprising that the OBOR initiative is being embraced by a wide range of countries from Asia and Africa to Europe and even South America, notwithstanding some serious concerns about the cost and benefits of the enormously ambitious project. Surely fewer European countries showed up at the Beijing summit because of their reservations over China’s reluctance to open doors to foreign companies.
While addressing the forum, President Xi tried to alleviate concerns about China’s dominance, inviting other countries to take part in the project. China is spending roughly $150bn a year in the 68 countries that have so far signed on to the plan. According to Chinese government figures, around $1 trillion have already been invested in OBOR, with several more trillions due to be invested over the next decade. This way Beijing hopes to find a more profitable avenue for the country’s vast foreign exchange reserves, mostly invested in low-interest-bearing US government securities.
It is evident that OBOR is not just about infrastructure development; one of the major objectives of the initiative is to turn Eurasia into an economic and trading centre, breaking the domination of the American-led transatlantic regime. It is also a manifestation of the changing geopolitics and the realignment of forces, reflecting a move to shift the centre of gravity of trade to the East and establish China’s predominance in global politics.
Indeed, Russia has lent active support to the Chinese initiative indicating a growing strategic partnership between the two countries. Moscow’s major interest is to consolidate its primacy in Central Asia through regional security and a trade bloc.
However, it is willing to accommodate China’s economic and geopolitical interests more than ever because of Western sanctions following the Ukraine crisis. Since 2014, the two countries have reached several high-profile multibillion-dollar economic and trade deals signalling their close, evolving economic ties. Unsurprisingly, Russian President Vladimir Putin used the forum to lash out at the US and other Western countries over their increasingly protectionist policies.
Surely China considers the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) a “flagship project” in the whole scheme of OBOR. This multibillion-dollar investment programme has added a new dimension to the friendship between Pakistan and China. From purely strategic and security cooperation spanning more than five decades, the relationship has now evolved into a dynamic economic and commercial partnership.
This growing bilateral cooperation comes at a time when China’s rising geopolitical ambition also underscores its concerns about Pakistan’s security and its fledgling economy. Given its geostrategic position, Pakistan has the potential to serve as a nexus for the two routes — the continental Eurasian Silk Road Economic Belt and a Southeast Asian Maritime Silk Road
Although Beijing downplays geostrategic motivations, CPEC represents an international extension of China’s effort to deliver security through economic development. Notwithstanding their growing strategic cooperation, terrorist sanctuaries in Pakistan have remained a major source of worry for the Chinese government. China’s security concerns, especially those that arise from its restive region of Xinjiang, and the Islamist militancy threatening Pakistan’s stability have also been a strong factor in Beijing’s new approach to achieving security through economic development.
This growing Pakistan-China strategic alliance has also exposed the regional geopolitical fault lines. Predictably, India boycotted the Beijing forum citing serious reservations about the project, particularly regarding China-funded development in Gilgit-Baltistan that is linked to the Kashmir dispute. Yet another excuse given by the Indian authorities was that a trans-regional project of this magnitude required wider consultation.
Explore: Is India trying to convince the world China’s OBOR plan is secretly colonial?
Despite their geopolitical rivalry and long-standing border dispute, trade between India and China has grown significantly crossing $100bn. But there have been some visible signs of tension between the two most populous nations in the past few years with the strengthening of ties between Washington and New Delhi. India has openly sided with the US and Japan against China over the South China Sea issue.
Indeed, the success of the summit has provoked a strong reaction from Delhi. So much so that some leading commentators have called for tougher action to obstruct the OBOR project. “Far from this, CPEC (the life and soul of OBOR) threatens India’s territorial integrity in a manner unseen since 1962,” Samir Saran, a leading Indian commentator wrote in an op-ed piece.
Notwithstanding the scepticism, OBOR is a new geo-economic reality representing an emerging world order. The process cannot be reversed.
The writer is an author and journalist.
zhussain100@yahoo.com
Twitter: @hidhussain
Published in Dawn, May 17th, 2017
ZAHID HUSSAINUPDATED ABOUT 4 HOURS AGO
64 COMMENTS
The writer is an author and journalist.
CHINA recently hosted 29 heads of state and government at the Belt and Road Forum, reinforcing the country’s claim to leadership of an emerging geopolitical and economic world order. The summit conference that also attracted representatives of more than 40 other countries and multilateral financial agencies was the clearest expression yet of China breaking out of its old foreign policy mould that had restrained it from attempting a global role.
China’s multibillion-dollar One Belt, One Road (OBOR) infrastructure development project linking the old Silk Road with Europe, is a manifestation of China’s growing geopolitical ambitions. A brainchild of President Xi Jinping, perhaps, the most powerful Chinese leader after Mao Zedong, OBOR has now been under development for four years, spanning 68 countries and accounting for up to 40 per cent of global GDP.
President Xi’s ambition of propelling China to centre stage of the global power game represents a sharp departure from the approach of previous Chinese leaders who strictly adhered to Deng Xiaoping’s tenet to “hide our capabilities and bide our time, never try to take the lead”. Thus over the past two decades, China has avoided being drawn into global conflicts and has completely focused its energies on development that helped it to become an economic superpower.
China’s push to take the world leadership has come at a time when a strong anti-globalisation wave is sweeping the Western world that is showing a growing tendency of returning to more protectionist regimes. The United States under the Trump administration with its inward-looking approach has virtually abandoned the mantle of globalisation thus ceding greater space to Beijing’s assertion.
It is evident that OBOR is not just about infrastructure development.
It is not surprising that the OBOR initiative is being embraced by a wide range of countries from Asia and Africa to Europe and even South America, notwithstanding some serious concerns about the cost and benefits of the enormously ambitious project. Surely fewer European countries showed up at the Beijing summit because of their reservations over China’s reluctance to open doors to foreign companies.
While addressing the forum, President Xi tried to alleviate concerns about China’s dominance, inviting other countries to take part in the project. China is spending roughly $150bn a year in the 68 countries that have so far signed on to the plan. According to Chinese government figures, around $1 trillion have already been invested in OBOR, with several more trillions due to be invested over the next decade. This way Beijing hopes to find a more profitable avenue for the country’s vast foreign exchange reserves, mostly invested in low-interest-bearing US government securities.
It is evident that OBOR is not just about infrastructure development; one of the major objectives of the initiative is to turn Eurasia into an economic and trading centre, breaking the domination of the American-led transatlantic regime. It is also a manifestation of the changing geopolitics and the realignment of forces, reflecting a move to shift the centre of gravity of trade to the East and establish China’s predominance in global politics.
Indeed, Russia has lent active support to the Chinese initiative indicating a growing strategic partnership between the two countries. Moscow’s major interest is to consolidate its primacy in Central Asia through regional security and a trade bloc.
However, it is willing to accommodate China’s economic and geopolitical interests more than ever because of Western sanctions following the Ukraine crisis. Since 2014, the two countries have reached several high-profile multibillion-dollar economic and trade deals signalling their close, evolving economic ties. Unsurprisingly, Russian President Vladimir Putin used the forum to lash out at the US and other Western countries over their increasingly protectionist policies.
Surely China considers the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) a “flagship project” in the whole scheme of OBOR. This multibillion-dollar investment programme has added a new dimension to the friendship between Pakistan and China. From purely strategic and security cooperation spanning more than five decades, the relationship has now evolved into a dynamic economic and commercial partnership.
This growing bilateral cooperation comes at a time when China’s rising geopolitical ambition also underscores its concerns about Pakistan’s security and its fledgling economy. Given its geostrategic position, Pakistan has the potential to serve as a nexus for the two routes — the continental Eurasian Silk Road Economic Belt and a Southeast Asian Maritime Silk Road
Although Beijing downplays geostrategic motivations, CPEC represents an international extension of China’s effort to deliver security through economic development. Notwithstanding their growing strategic cooperation, terrorist sanctuaries in Pakistan have remained a major source of worry for the Chinese government. China’s security concerns, especially those that arise from its restive region of Xinjiang, and the Islamist militancy threatening Pakistan’s stability have also been a strong factor in Beijing’s new approach to achieving security through economic development.
This growing Pakistan-China strategic alliance has also exposed the regional geopolitical fault lines. Predictably, India boycotted the Beijing forum citing serious reservations about the project, particularly regarding China-funded development in Gilgit-Baltistan that is linked to the Kashmir dispute. Yet another excuse given by the Indian authorities was that a trans-regional project of this magnitude required wider consultation.
Explore: Is India trying to convince the world China’s OBOR plan is secretly colonial?
Despite their geopolitical rivalry and long-standing border dispute, trade between India and China has grown significantly crossing $100bn. But there have been some visible signs of tension between the two most populous nations in the past few years with the strengthening of ties between Washington and New Delhi. India has openly sided with the US and Japan against China over the South China Sea issue.
Indeed, the success of the summit has provoked a strong reaction from Delhi. So much so that some leading commentators have called for tougher action to obstruct the OBOR project. “Far from this, CPEC (the life and soul of OBOR) threatens India’s territorial integrity in a manner unseen since 1962,” Samir Saran, a leading Indian commentator wrote in an op-ed piece.
Notwithstanding the scepticism, OBOR is a new geo-economic reality representing an emerging world order. The process cannot be reversed.
The writer is an author and journalist.
zhussain100@yahoo.com
Twitter: @hidhussain
Published in Dawn, May 17th, 2017
TaiShang
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Putin Aligns With Xi in Crafting the New World (Trade) Order
Russia will be a key ally for China's One Road, One Belt initiative
Pepe Escobar 
Tue, May 16, 2017 |
Putin was treated as the guest of honor
History will record the Belt and Road Forum in Beijing marked the juncture where the 21st century New Silk Roads assumed their full character of Globalization 2.0, or “inclusive globalization,” as defined by President Xi Jinping in Davos earlier this year.
I have dealt with the monumental stakes here and here. Terminology, of course, remains a minor problem. What was once defined as One Belt, One Road (OBOR) is now promoted as the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). Much is still somewhat lost in translation in English, what matters is that Xi has managed to imprint the myriad possibilities inbuilt in the concept especially across the Global South.
An amiable host, Xi in Beijing went 'no holds barred' extolling the inclusive integration merits of OBOR/BRI. It also helps that along the way, this being China, his spin doctors came up with a lovely metaphor to illustrate how OBOR/BRI should find its force as a common, pan-Eurasian effort; “Wild Swan geese [found across Asia but not in Europe] are able to fly far and safely through winds and storms because they move in flocks and help each other as a team.”
And arguably the key member of this flock of wild swan geese happens to be Russia.
#Putin plays piano at Xi Jinping's residence during forum in Beijing https://t.co/i5M9w3QFeH pic.twitter.com/xGuQyr07wF
— RT (@RT_com)
May 15, 2017
Follow the geese
President Putin and Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov were guests of honor at the forum. At a business breakfast discussion, Xi seated Putin to his right and Lavrov to his left.
At a Leaders Roundtable summit on the second day of the forum - a sort of Silk Road United Nations, with the microphones open equally to all – Putin touched on a key point; the symbiosis, formalized since 2015, between OBOR/BRI and the Russia-driven Eurasian Economic Union (EEU), currently formed by Russia, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Belarus, and Armenia.
As Putin said, “some 50 European, Asian and Latin American states” are interested in cooperation with the EEU. While the EEU and China are discussing their own, wide-ranging trade/economic deal, the EEU is also consulting, among others, with Iran, India, Serbia, Singapore, and Egypt.
But it was during his speech at the inaugural session of the forum that Putin managed to distill what amounts to a concentrate of Russian foreign policy.
Here are the key topics.
- Through “integration formats like the EEU, OBOR, the SCO, and ASEAN, we can build the foundation for a larger Eurasian partnership.”
- There is now a “unique opportunity to create a common cooperation framework from the Atlantic to the Pacific
– for the first time in history.” Essentially, this is what Putin himself had once proposed – then shunned by EU/NATO – even before Xi announced OBOR in 2013.
- “Russia is not only willing to be a reliable trading partner but also seeks to invest in the creation of joint ventures and new production capacities in partnering states, to invest in industrial facilities, sales, and services.”
- Russia is investing in building “a system of modern and well-connected transport corridors,” “expanding the capacity of the Baikal-Amur Mainline and the Trans-Siberian Railway, investing significant resources into improvements to the Northeast Passage.”
- And then, looking at the Big Picture, “the infrastructure projects within the EEU and the One Belt, One Road initiative in conjunction with the Northeast Passage can completely reconfigure transportation on the Eurasian continent.”
- Putin expects “newly established financial institutions like the New Development Bank (BRICS Development Bank) and the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank to offer a supporting hand to private investors.”
And then, the clincher, fully aligned with Xi’s vision; “Greater Eurasia is not an abstract geopolitical arrangement but, without exaggeration, a truly civilization-wide project looking toward the future.”
When in doubt, call the SCO
Compared with the depth and breadth of this shared vision, nothing could be more pedestrian than the official India attitude; not only sending a low-level delegation to Beijing, but imprinting on mainstream Indian media the notion that OBOR/BRI is “little more than a colonial enterprise [that would leave] debt and broken communities in its wake”.
The flock of wild swan geese flying toward Eurasia integration is now a fact of life. East Asian output, for that matter, will surpass North America’s during the Trump era. The future, rather, the dissolution of unipolar hegemony will be decided in Eurasia, particularly East Asia.
India may certainly harbor its own strategic agenda. But self-marginalization of the one and only integrated development project in the 21st century hardly qualifies as savvy diplomacy.
So it looks like Putin once again will have his work cut out for him. India, a historical partner of the former USSR, still maintains good trade relations with Russia. Iran, for its part, is as much a key Indian energy partner as China’s. So the road map ahead spells out Moscow, alongside Tehran, playing the go-betweens trying to sweeten India into the Eurasia integration path.
That could well take place within the framework of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), which from now on will have a full plate not only trying to smooth out a feasible Afghan peace process but making sure India and Pakistan find a political entente cordiale.
It will be a bit like older brothers trying to instill some sense into younger ones – as Russia and China, as part of their strategic partnership, have already worked hard to manage the twin admission of India and Pakistan into the SCO.
Iran will also become a full member shortly. So we will soon have an active SCO from Southwest Asia all the way to South Asia, with a political-economic integration agenda expanding the initial drive to fight myriad manifestations of Salafi-jihadi terror.
This slowly but surely progressive convergence fits into the larger goals of the Russia-China strategic partnership, which once again, as demonstrated during the Beijing forum, is all about Eurasia integration.
The invisible story at the Beijing forum was that as much as Turkey is a key node of OBOR/BRI and Kazakhstan is a key node between OBOR/BRI and the EEU, it’s China and Russia that will truly advance the complex roadmap of this “civilization-wide project.”
Source: RT
Russia will be a key ally for China's One Road, One Belt initiative
Pepe Escobar Tue, May 16, 2017 |
Putin was treated as the guest of honor
History will record the Belt and Road Forum in Beijing marked the juncture where the 21st century New Silk Roads assumed their full character of Globalization 2.0, or “inclusive globalization,” as defined by President Xi Jinping in Davos earlier this year.
I have dealt with the monumental stakes here and here. Terminology, of course, remains a minor problem. What was once defined as One Belt, One Road (OBOR) is now promoted as the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). Much is still somewhat lost in translation in English, what matters is that Xi has managed to imprint the myriad possibilities inbuilt in the concept especially across the Global South.
An amiable host, Xi in Beijing went 'no holds barred' extolling the inclusive integration merits of OBOR/BRI. It also helps that along the way, this being China, his spin doctors came up with a lovely metaphor to illustrate how OBOR/BRI should find its force as a common, pan-Eurasian effort; “Wild Swan geese [found across Asia but not in Europe] are able to fly far and safely through winds and storms because they move in flocks and help each other as a team.”
And arguably the key member of this flock of wild swan geese happens to be Russia.
#Putin plays piano at Xi Jinping's residence during forum in Beijing https://t.co/i5M9w3QFeH pic.twitter.com/xGuQyr07wF
— RT (@RT_com)
May 15, 2017
Follow the geese
President Putin and Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov were guests of honor at the forum. At a business breakfast discussion, Xi seated Putin to his right and Lavrov to his left.
At a Leaders Roundtable summit on the second day of the forum - a sort of Silk Road United Nations, with the microphones open equally to all – Putin touched on a key point; the symbiosis, formalized since 2015, between OBOR/BRI and the Russia-driven Eurasian Economic Union (EEU), currently formed by Russia, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Belarus, and Armenia.
As Putin said, “some 50 European, Asian and Latin American states” are interested in cooperation with the EEU. While the EEU and China are discussing their own, wide-ranging trade/economic deal, the EEU is also consulting, among others, with Iran, India, Serbia, Singapore, and Egypt.
But it was during his speech at the inaugural session of the forum that Putin managed to distill what amounts to a concentrate of Russian foreign policy.
Here are the key topics.
- Through “integration formats like the EEU, OBOR, the SCO, and ASEAN, we can build the foundation for a larger Eurasian partnership.”
- There is now a “unique opportunity to create a common cooperation framework from the Atlantic to the Pacific
– for the first time in history.” Essentially, this is what Putin himself had once proposed – then shunned by EU/NATO – even before Xi announced OBOR in 2013.
- “Russia is not only willing to be a reliable trading partner but also seeks to invest in the creation of joint ventures and new production capacities in partnering states, to invest in industrial facilities, sales, and services.”
- Russia is investing in building “a system of modern and well-connected transport corridors,” “expanding the capacity of the Baikal-Amur Mainline and the Trans-Siberian Railway, investing significant resources into improvements to the Northeast Passage.”
- And then, looking at the Big Picture, “the infrastructure projects within the EEU and the One Belt, One Road initiative in conjunction with the Northeast Passage can completely reconfigure transportation on the Eurasian continent.”
- Putin expects “newly established financial institutions like the New Development Bank (BRICS Development Bank) and the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank to offer a supporting hand to private investors.”
And then, the clincher, fully aligned with Xi’s vision; “Greater Eurasia is not an abstract geopolitical arrangement but, without exaggeration, a truly civilization-wide project looking toward the future.”
When in doubt, call the SCO
Compared with the depth and breadth of this shared vision, nothing could be more pedestrian than the official India attitude; not only sending a low-level delegation to Beijing, but imprinting on mainstream Indian media the notion that OBOR/BRI is “little more than a colonial enterprise [that would leave] debt and broken communities in its wake”.
The flock of wild swan geese flying toward Eurasia integration is now a fact of life. East Asian output, for that matter, will surpass North America’s during the Trump era. The future, rather, the dissolution of unipolar hegemony will be decided in Eurasia, particularly East Asia.
India may certainly harbor its own strategic agenda. But self-marginalization of the one and only integrated development project in the 21st century hardly qualifies as savvy diplomacy.
So it looks like Putin once again will have his work cut out for him. India, a historical partner of the former USSR, still maintains good trade relations with Russia. Iran, for its part, is as much a key Indian energy partner as China’s. So the road map ahead spells out Moscow, alongside Tehran, playing the go-betweens trying to sweeten India into the Eurasia integration path.
That could well take place within the framework of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), which from now on will have a full plate not only trying to smooth out a feasible Afghan peace process but making sure India and Pakistan find a political entente cordiale.
It will be a bit like older brothers trying to instill some sense into younger ones – as Russia and China, as part of their strategic partnership, have already worked hard to manage the twin admission of India and Pakistan into the SCO.
Iran will also become a full member shortly. So we will soon have an active SCO from Southwest Asia all the way to South Asia, with a political-economic integration agenda expanding the initial drive to fight myriad manifestations of Salafi-jihadi terror.
This slowly but surely progressive convergence fits into the larger goals of the Russia-China strategic partnership, which once again, as demonstrated during the Beijing forum, is all about Eurasia integration.
The invisible story at the Beijing forum was that as much as Turkey is a key node of OBOR/BRI and Kazakhstan is a key node between OBOR/BRI and the EEU, it’s China and Russia that will truly advance the complex roadmap of this “civilization-wide project.”
Source: RT
JSCh
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China’s belt and road infrastructure plan also includes science
By Dennis Normile, May. 16, 2017 , 12:00 PM
China’s plan to make massive investments in land and sea links with global trading partners also includes a little noticed commitment to support science and engineering, including the creation of dozens of new laboratories.
The belt and road initiative—originally announced in fall 2013 and officially dubbed the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st-Century Maritime Silk Road—is primarily an economic development program. Chinese President Xi Jinping's pet project, it is heavy on infrastructure—calling for new roads, railways, bridges, and ports—to recreate the overland and maritime trade routes that once led to China. Nearly 70 nations have agreed to cooperate in the plan, which aims to foster industrial development not only in the developing nations of Asia and Africa, but also in China's western provinces, which have yet to share in the economic prosperity of the country's coastal regions.
China is also planning to use the initiative to flex its scientific and engineering muscles, officials made clear at a 2-day Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation that ended yesterday in Beijing. “Innovation is an important force powering development,” Xi said in a speech to the opening session of the forum. And so the initiative will include technical cooperation in fields including artificial intelligence, nanotechnology, quantum computing, and smart cities. He also mentioned the need to pursue economic growth that is in line with sustainable development goals, and that rests on environmentally friendly approaches.
A science and technology action plan calls for training 5000 foreign scientists, engineers, and managers over the next 5 years, as well as welcoming younger scientists to China on short-term research visits. (That pledge comes on top of a separate program that each year provides 10,000 scholarships to students from developing countries to study in China.) The initiative also calls for setting up 50 joint laboratories, though the research fields and other details are not yet specified. And Xi wants to create a big data service platform on environmental protection, and promises support for countries adapting to climate change.
The Beijing-based Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) is on board with the effort. A year ago it formed a Digital Silk Road program that will bring together scientists from 40 countries to cooperate on space-based Earth observations that might help identify and manage natural resources, protect the environment, and prepare for and respond to disasters. And last fall, the academy organized an international symposium that pulled together 50 countries from along the trade routes to explore further opportunities for cooperation. CAS sees the belt and road effort as China “shouldering more international responsibility,” academy President Bai Chunli said in a statement prior to the summit.
So far, China has committed some $1 trillion to the belt and road initiative, which will unfold over many years.
DOI: 10.1126/science.aal1198
China’s belt and road infrastructure plan also includes science | Science | AAAS
By Dennis Normile, May. 16, 2017 , 12:00 PM
China’s plan to make massive investments in land and sea links with global trading partners also includes a little noticed commitment to support science and engineering, including the creation of dozens of new laboratories.
The belt and road initiative—originally announced in fall 2013 and officially dubbed the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st-Century Maritime Silk Road—is primarily an economic development program. Chinese President Xi Jinping's pet project, it is heavy on infrastructure—calling for new roads, railways, bridges, and ports—to recreate the overland and maritime trade routes that once led to China. Nearly 70 nations have agreed to cooperate in the plan, which aims to foster industrial development not only in the developing nations of Asia and Africa, but also in China's western provinces, which have yet to share in the economic prosperity of the country's coastal regions.
China is also planning to use the initiative to flex its scientific and engineering muscles, officials made clear at a 2-day Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation that ended yesterday in Beijing. “Innovation is an important force powering development,” Xi said in a speech to the opening session of the forum. And so the initiative will include technical cooperation in fields including artificial intelligence, nanotechnology, quantum computing, and smart cities. He also mentioned the need to pursue economic growth that is in line with sustainable development goals, and that rests on environmentally friendly approaches.
A science and technology action plan calls for training 5000 foreign scientists, engineers, and managers over the next 5 years, as well as welcoming younger scientists to China on short-term research visits. (That pledge comes on top of a separate program that each year provides 10,000 scholarships to students from developing countries to study in China.) The initiative also calls for setting up 50 joint laboratories, though the research fields and other details are not yet specified. And Xi wants to create a big data service platform on environmental protection, and promises support for countries adapting to climate change.
The Beijing-based Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) is on board with the effort. A year ago it formed a Digital Silk Road program that will bring together scientists from 40 countries to cooperate on space-based Earth observations that might help identify and manage natural resources, protect the environment, and prepare for and respond to disasters. And last fall, the academy organized an international symposium that pulled together 50 countries from along the trade routes to explore further opportunities for cooperation. CAS sees the belt and road effort as China “shouldering more international responsibility,” academy President Bai Chunli said in a statement prior to the summit.
So far, China has committed some $1 trillion to the belt and road initiative, which will unfold over many years.
DOI: 10.1126/science.aal1198
China’s belt and road infrastructure plan also includes science | Science | AAAS
The Accountant
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niceCartoon of the Day in DailyMirror a major SL newspaper
ckf
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By your twisted logic, all the consumers/countries around the world buying Chinese goods are stupid...all the Indian/government buying and allowing importing of Xiaomi phones are idiots. Your are too smart for us idiots.
ckf
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[/QUOTE]
Do you understand comparative advantage in Trade, and why people trade. S.Korea and Japan has no natural resources, but plenty of economic brain power....resource is valuable and potentially a curse (Saudi). So the Idea China sucking India, Pakistan, Sri lanka and Vietnam's natural resources as fuel is just one sided...advancement in society comes when its citizen have access to technology and material goods which promotes learning, education and healthy competition...
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Presently the number of US oversea military base is 374, distributed in more than 140 countries and regions, 300000 troops. China has only 1 if count in Djibouti. Without world wide war, or similar event as disintegration of USSR, there's no dramatic change of global order.
OBOR does bring political impact however it's dramatically exaggerated by fantasy media,
US act as a very important role in global security order whether we like it or not, without US,
the world would suddenly mess up, war could breakup everywhere. However the power of US should be balanced to reduce abuse.
Trump would strength American military capability and capacity as he promised days ago, does an "inward looking US" need spend more money on military? No. The global order of economy is gradually changing, e.g. rising of China, India, SEA and Africa etc. The security order ? No in foreseeable future.
OBOR does bring political impact however it's dramatically exaggerated by fantasy media,
US act as a very important role in global security order whether we like it or not, without US,
the world would suddenly mess up, war could breakup everywhere. However the power of US should be balanced to reduce abuse.
Trump would strength American military capability and capacity as he promised days ago, does an "inward looking US" need spend more money on military? No. The global order of economy is gradually changing, e.g. rising of China, India, SEA and Africa etc. The security order ? No in foreseeable future.
samsara
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WHAT BELT AND ROAD SNUB MEANS FOR SINGAPORE’S TIES WITH CHINA
Lion City’s Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong was not among the many heads of state invited to a summit for Chinese President Xi Jinping’s new Silk Road, suggesting Beijing is still smarting from a protracted diplomatic spat
By Bhavan Jaipragas - SCMP - 18 May 2017
Not invited: Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong.
China’s decision not to invite Singapore’s Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong to last weekend’s Belt and Road Forum highlights the still-strained ties between the two countries, observers say, though officials in the Lion City have tried to shrug off talk of any diplomatic rift.
Of the 10 Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) members, only three countries were not represented by their heads of government at the high-level summit in Beijing: Singapore, Thailand and Brunei. Twenty-nine national leaders and the representatives of 28 other countries attended the two-day meeting to discuss the China-led initiative to rebuild the ancient Silk Road trade route through a network of new ports, railways and roads.
The Singapore delegation was led by national development minister Lawrence Wong, while Thailand was represented by foreign minister Don Pramudwinai and four other cabinet ministers. Brunei, the tiny but oil-rich kingdom ruled by Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah, was represented by second foreign minister Lim Jock Seng.
In an interview with travelling Singaporean media, Wong revealed that the invitations were decided by China. It was the first official acknowledgement that Lee was not invited. In sharp contrast, regional counterparts including Malaysia’s Najib Razak, Indonesia’s Joko Widodo and the Philippines’ Rodrigo Duterte prominently highlighted their participation in the summit on social media. Lee’s office did not respond to This Week in Asia’s queries on the matter.
The Philippines' Rodrigo Duterte, Indonesia's Joko Widodo and Malaysia's Najib Razak in a photo shared on Najib’s Twitter account.
Smaller nations with less-established diplomatic ties with Beijing also sent their heads of government to the summit. These included Fiji, Chile, Greece, and Hungary.
Britain sent finance minister Philip Hammond, the government’s de facto number two, while the US delegation was led by White House adviser Matt Pottinger.
Thitinan Pongsudhirak, a Southeast Asian foreign policy expert, said in the case of some countries like Thailand, heads of government were probably left off the guest list because of their peripheral geographical location in the sea and land routes linking China with the rest of Asia and Africa.
PROTRACTED SPAT
But while nearly half of the 57 countries were not represented by their heads of government, foreign policy experts said Lee’s absence was conspicuous as it provided clues on the extent of the fallout following a protracted diplomatic spat between the two countries over the past year.
$55b trade route, and a rekindled China-Pakistan love affair
Xue Li, a senior research fellow at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences think tank, said China’s decision not to invite the Singaporean leader reflected a growing belief in Beijing that the Lion City sought only economic benefits from China, while “relying on the US for security”.
“China is gradually recognising this and therefore doesn’t really care if the Singapore PM attended or not,” Xue said.
Michael Tai, a Singapore-China watcher at Cambridge University, said the non-invite showed the city state had “not patched things up with Beijing since last year’s Non-Aligned Movement Summit incident”. He was referring to the public exchange of words between Stanley Loh, the Singaporean envoy in Beijing, and the state-linked Global Times newspaper over a report on the city state’s position on the South China Sea dispute during last year’s Non-Aligned Movement Summit.
Nine Singapore military vehicles at a container terminal in Hong Kong, where they were seized by customs. Photo: AP
Bilateral ties hit another low in November after Hong Kong customs seized nine Singapore military vehicles en route from exercises in Taiwan to the Lion City, citing a breach of local laws on the shipment of strategic commodities. The vehicles were returned two months later, but China used the episode to voice its displeasure at Singapore’s longstanding policy of conducting military exercises in Taiwan, which Beijing considers a renegade province.
Hong Kong to return seized armoured vehicles to Singapore
After the vehicles were returned on January 24, Singaporean officials declared that their behind-the-scenes diplomatic efforts had helped to fix the months-long diplomatic turbulence between the two countries. Lee, in an interview with the BBC in March said “both sides handled it carefully and there had been a satisfactory outcome”. But the non-invitation to the weekend summit showed he and other Singaporean leaders were not on the same page as Beijing on the state of bilateral relations, some observers said.
“What we can deduce is that China is laying its unhappiness over these issues with the Singaporean head of government, who happens to be Lee Hsien Loong,” said Chong Ja Ian, a Chinese foreign policy expert at the National University of Singapore.
WATCH: Belt and Road - What, when, why, how?
The incident was not the first time Lee, the son of Singapore’s founding premier Lee Kuan Yew, has come under pressure from Beijing. Months before taking over as premier in August 2004, Lee triggered a furious reaction from China after he made a private visit to Taiwan and offered to mediate between the leaders of the self-governing island and Beijing. China, which considers Taiwan a renegade province, portrayed the gesture as an interference in domestic affairs and temporarily suspended high-level diplomatic exchanges.
The senior Lee, who died in 2015 aged 91, is widely recognised as the architect of an adroit foreign policy that embraces all major powers. He maintained close ties with senior Chinese leaders even after he retreated from public life following a near five-decade political career.
Can China really deliver Malaysia’s Singapore slayer?
“The current administration in Singapore is different from the generation of Lee Kuan Yew,” said Xue, the Chinese foreign policy expert. “They are used to dealing with China from their Western perspective that is being a teacher of China, rather than a follower of China,” he added.
Tai, the Cambridge-based observer, said the new Silk Road could drive a permanent wedge between the two countries. “The Belt and Road promises to bring regional connectivity on an unprecedented scale, which could soon undercut Singapore’s most important asset – her position as the premier trade and financial centre between the Indian Ocean and the South China Sea,” he said.
‘ALL WEATHER FRIENDS’
Singaporean officials meanwhile have maintained the city state is committed to a strong relationship with China. Wong, who led the Singapore delegation at the summit, said the city state could play a role as a key financial hub for the Belt and Road Initiative. The city state has assets under management of US$1.8 trillion, and last year was the top destination for foreign direct investment linked to the new Silk Road. In a forum in Beijing last week, senior Singaporean diplomat Tommy Koh said the Lion City was one of China’s “all weather friends”. “The bottom line is this: Singapore will never allow its relationship with any major power to harm China,” he said.
WATCH: Chinese President Xi hosts Belt and Road forum
He was refuting comments by the Chinese foreign policy observer Ruan Zongze that Singapore was aligned with the US despite publicly claiming it was not. Officials have also sought to use a series of diplomatic engagements between the two countries this week to downplay talk of strained ties. Senior Communist Party official Zhao Leji met with Lee on Tuesday during an official visit to Singapore. Wong is chairing the World Cities Summit Mayors Forum in Suzhou starting on Thursday. The two-day event is organised by the Singapore government.
And on Friday, Chee Wee Kiong, the permanent secretary of the Singaporean foreign ministry, will co-chair a scheduled China-Asean meeting with Chinese vice-foreign minister Liu Zhenmin. Singapore is the designated coordinator of China-Asean relations.
At home, some online commentators said the episode crystallised the constant exhortations by the late elder Lee on the vulnerability of small states. Lee in 2009 had said “a small country must seek a maximum number of friends, while maintaining the freedom to be itself as a sovereign and independent nation”.
Lion City’s Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong was not among the many heads of state invited to a summit for Chinese President Xi Jinping’s new Silk Road, suggesting Beijing is still smarting from a protracted diplomatic spat
By Bhavan Jaipragas - SCMP - 18 May 2017
Not invited: Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong.
China’s decision not to invite Singapore’s Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong to last weekend’s Belt and Road Forum highlights the still-strained ties between the two countries, observers say, though officials in the Lion City have tried to shrug off talk of any diplomatic rift.
Of the 10 Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) members, only three countries were not represented by their heads of government at the high-level summit in Beijing: Singapore, Thailand and Brunei. Twenty-nine national leaders and the representatives of 28 other countries attended the two-day meeting to discuss the China-led initiative to rebuild the ancient Silk Road trade route through a network of new ports, railways and roads.
The Singapore delegation was led by national development minister Lawrence Wong, while Thailand was represented by foreign minister Don Pramudwinai and four other cabinet ministers. Brunei, the tiny but oil-rich kingdom ruled by Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah, was represented by second foreign minister Lim Jock Seng.
In an interview with travelling Singaporean media, Wong revealed that the invitations were decided by China. It was the first official acknowledgement that Lee was not invited. In sharp contrast, regional counterparts including Malaysia’s Najib Razak, Indonesia’s Joko Widodo and the Philippines’ Rodrigo Duterte prominently highlighted their participation in the summit on social media. Lee’s office did not respond to This Week in Asia’s queries on the matter.
The Philippines' Rodrigo Duterte, Indonesia's Joko Widodo and Malaysia's Najib Razak in a photo shared on Najib’s Twitter account.
Smaller nations with less-established diplomatic ties with Beijing also sent their heads of government to the summit. These included Fiji, Chile, Greece, and Hungary.
Britain sent finance minister Philip Hammond, the government’s de facto number two, while the US delegation was led by White House adviser Matt Pottinger.
Thitinan Pongsudhirak, a Southeast Asian foreign policy expert, said in the case of some countries like Thailand, heads of government were probably left off the guest list because of their peripheral geographical location in the sea and land routes linking China with the rest of Asia and Africa.
PROTRACTED SPAT
But while nearly half of the 57 countries were not represented by their heads of government, foreign policy experts said Lee’s absence was conspicuous as it provided clues on the extent of the fallout following a protracted diplomatic spat between the two countries over the past year.
$55b trade route, and a rekindled China-Pakistan love affair
Xue Li, a senior research fellow at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences think tank, said China’s decision not to invite the Singaporean leader reflected a growing belief in Beijing that the Lion City sought only economic benefits from China, while “relying on the US for security”.
“China is gradually recognising this and therefore doesn’t really care if the Singapore PM attended or not,” Xue said.
Michael Tai, a Singapore-China watcher at Cambridge University, said the non-invite showed the city state had “not patched things up with Beijing since last year’s Non-Aligned Movement Summit incident”. He was referring to the public exchange of words between Stanley Loh, the Singaporean envoy in Beijing, and the state-linked Global Times newspaper over a report on the city state’s position on the South China Sea dispute during last year’s Non-Aligned Movement Summit.
Nine Singapore military vehicles at a container terminal in Hong Kong, where they were seized by customs. Photo: AP
Hong Kong to return seized armoured vehicles to Singapore
After the vehicles were returned on January 24, Singaporean officials declared that their behind-the-scenes diplomatic efforts had helped to fix the months-long diplomatic turbulence between the two countries. Lee, in an interview with the BBC in March said “both sides handled it carefully and there had been a satisfactory outcome”. But the non-invitation to the weekend summit showed he and other Singaporean leaders were not on the same page as Beijing on the state of bilateral relations, some observers said.
“What we can deduce is that China is laying its unhappiness over these issues with the Singaporean head of government, who happens to be Lee Hsien Loong,” said Chong Ja Ian, a Chinese foreign policy expert at the National University of Singapore.
WATCH: Belt and Road - What, when, why, how?
The incident was not the first time Lee, the son of Singapore’s founding premier Lee Kuan Yew, has come under pressure from Beijing. Months before taking over as premier in August 2004, Lee triggered a furious reaction from China after he made a private visit to Taiwan and offered to mediate between the leaders of the self-governing island and Beijing. China, which considers Taiwan a renegade province, portrayed the gesture as an interference in domestic affairs and temporarily suspended high-level diplomatic exchanges.
The senior Lee, who died in 2015 aged 91, is widely recognised as the architect of an adroit foreign policy that embraces all major powers. He maintained close ties with senior Chinese leaders even after he retreated from public life following a near five-decade political career.
Can China really deliver Malaysia’s Singapore slayer?
“The current administration in Singapore is different from the generation of Lee Kuan Yew,” said Xue, the Chinese foreign policy expert. “They are used to dealing with China from their Western perspective that is being a teacher of China, rather than a follower of China,” he added.
Tai, the Cambridge-based observer, said the new Silk Road could drive a permanent wedge between the two countries. “The Belt and Road promises to bring regional connectivity on an unprecedented scale, which could soon undercut Singapore’s most important asset – her position as the premier trade and financial centre between the Indian Ocean and the South China Sea,” he said.
‘ALL WEATHER FRIENDS’
Singaporean officials meanwhile have maintained the city state is committed to a strong relationship with China. Wong, who led the Singapore delegation at the summit, said the city state could play a role as a key financial hub for the Belt and Road Initiative. The city state has assets under management of US$1.8 trillion, and last year was the top destination for foreign direct investment linked to the new Silk Road. In a forum in Beijing last week, senior Singaporean diplomat Tommy Koh said the Lion City was one of China’s “all weather friends”. “The bottom line is this: Singapore will never allow its relationship with any major power to harm China,” he said.
WATCH: Chinese President Xi hosts Belt and Road forum
He was refuting comments by the Chinese foreign policy observer Ruan Zongze that Singapore was aligned with the US despite publicly claiming it was not. Officials have also sought to use a series of diplomatic engagements between the two countries this week to downplay talk of strained ties. Senior Communist Party official Zhao Leji met with Lee on Tuesday during an official visit to Singapore. Wong is chairing the World Cities Summit Mayors Forum in Suzhou starting on Thursday. The two-day event is organised by the Singapore government.
And on Friday, Chee Wee Kiong, the permanent secretary of the Singaporean foreign ministry, will co-chair a scheduled China-Asean meeting with Chinese vice-foreign minister Liu Zhenmin. Singapore is the designated coordinator of China-Asean relations.
At home, some online commentators said the episode crystallised the constant exhortations by the late elder Lee on the vulnerability of small states. Lee in 2009 had said “a small country must seek a maximum number of friends, while maintaining the freedom to be itself as a sovereign and independent nation”.
Banglar Bir
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China’s new world order
Zahid Hussain, May 17, 2017
China recently hosted 29 heads of state and government at the Belt and Road Forum, reinforcing the country’s claim to leadership of an emerging geopolitical and economic world order. The summit conference that also attracted representatives of more than 40 other countries and multilateral financial agencies was the clearest expression yet of China breaking out of its old foreign policy mould that had restrained it from attempting a global role.
China’s multibillion-dollar One Belt, One Road (OBOR) infrastructure development project linking the old Silk Road with Europe, is a manifestation of China’s growing geopolitical ambitions. A brainchild of President Xi Jinping, perhaps, the most powerful Chinese leader after Mao Zedong, OBOR has now been under development for four years, spanning 68 countries and accounting for up to 40 per cent of global GDP.
President Xi’s ambition of propelling China to centre stage of the global power game represents a sharp departure from the approach of previous Chinese leaders who strictly adhered to Deng Xiaoping’s tenet to “hide our capabilities and bide our time, never try to take the lead”. Thus over the past two decades, China has avoided being drawn into global conflicts and has completely focused its energies on development that helped it to become an economic superpower.
China’s push to take the world leadership has come at a time when a strong anti-globalisation wave is sweeping the Western world that is showing a growing tendency of returning to more protectionist regimes. The United States under the Trump administration with its inward-looking approach has virtually abandoned the mantle of globalisation thus ceding greater space to Beijing’s assertion.
It is not surprising that the OBOR initiative is being embraced by a wide range of countries from Asia and Africa to Europe and even South America, notwithstanding some serious concerns about the cost and benefits of the enormously ambitious project. Surely fewer European countries showed up at the Beijing summit because of their reservations over China’s reluctance to open doors to foreign companies.
While addressing the forum, President Xi tried to alleviate concerns about China’s dominance, inviting other countries to take part in the project. China is spending roughly $150bn a year in the 68 countries that have so far signed on to the plan. According to Chinese government figures, around $1 trillion have already been invested in OBOR, with several more trillions due to be invested over the next decade. This way Beijing hopes to find a more profitable avenue for the country’s vast foreign exchange reserves, mostly invested in low-interest-bearing US government securities.
It is evident that OBOR is not just about infrastructure development; one of the major objectives of the initiative is to turn Eurasia into an economic and trading centre, breaking the domination of the American-led transatlantic regime. It is also a manifestation of the changing geopolitics and the realignment of forces, reflecting a move to shift the centre of gravity of trade to the East and establish China’s predominance in global politics.
Indeed, Russia has lent active support to the Chinese initiative indicating a growing strategic partnership between the two countries. Moscow’s major interest is to consolidate its primacy in Central Asia through regional security and a trade bloc.
However, it is willing to accommodate China’s economic and geopolitical interests more than ever because of Western sanctions following the Ukraine crisis. Since 2014, the two countries have reached several high-profile multibillion-dollar economic and trade deals signalling their close, evolving economic ties. Unsurprisingly, Russian President Vladimir Putin used the forum to lash out at the US and other Western countries over their increasingly protectionist policies.
Surely China considers the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) a “flagship project” in the whole scheme of OBOR. This multibillion-dollar investment programme has added a new dimension to the friendship between Pakistan and China. From purely strategic and security cooperation spanning more than five decades, the relationship has now evolved into a dynamic economic and commercial partnership.
This growing bilateral cooperation comes at a time when China’s rising geopolitical ambition also underscores its concerns about Pakistan’s security and its fledgling economy. Given its geostrategic position, Pakistan has the potential to serve as a nexus for the two routes — the continental Eurasian Silk Road Economic Belt and a Southeast Asian Maritime Silk Road
Although Beijing downplays geostrategic motivations, CPEC represents an international extension of China’s effort to deliver security through economic development. Notwithstanding their growing strategic cooperation, terrorist sanctuaries in Pakistan have remained a major source of worry for the Chinese government. China’s security concerns, especially those that arise from its restive region of Xinjiang, and the Islamist militancy threatening Pakistan’s stability have also been a strong factor in Beijing’s new approach to achieving security through economic development.
This growing Pakistan-China strategic alliance has also exposed the regional geopolitical fault lines. Predictably, India boycotted the Beijing forum citing serious reservations about the project, particularly regarding China-funded development in Gilgit-Baltistan that is linked to the Kashmir dispute. Yet another excuse given by the Indian authorities was that a trans-regional project of this magnitude required wider consultation.
Despite their geopolitical rivalry and long-standing border dispute, trade between India and China has grown significantly crossing $100bn. But there have been some visible signs of tension between the two most populous nations in the past few years with the strengthening of ties between Washington and New Delhi. India has openly sided with the US and Japan against China over the South China Sea issue.
Indeed, the success of the summit has provoked a strong reaction from Delhi. So much so that some leading commentators have called for tougher action to obstruct the OBOR project. “Far from this, CPEC (the life and soul of OBOR) threatens India’s territorial integrity in a manner unseen since 1962,” Samir Saran, a leading Indian commentator wrote in an op-ed piece.
Notwithstanding the scepticism, OBOR is a new geo-economic reality representing an emerging world order. The process cannot be reversed.
[The writer is an author and journalist]
http://southasianmonitor.com/2017/05/17/chinas-new-world-order/
Zahid Hussain, May 17, 2017
China recently hosted 29 heads of state and government at the Belt and Road Forum, reinforcing the country’s claim to leadership of an emerging geopolitical and economic world order. The summit conference that also attracted representatives of more than 40 other countries and multilateral financial agencies was the clearest expression yet of China breaking out of its old foreign policy mould that had restrained it from attempting a global role.
China’s multibillion-dollar One Belt, One Road (OBOR) infrastructure development project linking the old Silk Road with Europe, is a manifestation of China’s growing geopolitical ambitions. A brainchild of President Xi Jinping, perhaps, the most powerful Chinese leader after Mao Zedong, OBOR has now been under development for four years, spanning 68 countries and accounting for up to 40 per cent of global GDP.
President Xi’s ambition of propelling China to centre stage of the global power game represents a sharp departure from the approach of previous Chinese leaders who strictly adhered to Deng Xiaoping’s tenet to “hide our capabilities and bide our time, never try to take the lead”. Thus over the past two decades, China has avoided being drawn into global conflicts and has completely focused its energies on development that helped it to become an economic superpower.
China’s push to take the world leadership has come at a time when a strong anti-globalisation wave is sweeping the Western world that is showing a growing tendency of returning to more protectionist regimes. The United States under the Trump administration with its inward-looking approach has virtually abandoned the mantle of globalisation thus ceding greater space to Beijing’s assertion.
It is not surprising that the OBOR initiative is being embraced by a wide range of countries from Asia and Africa to Europe and even South America, notwithstanding some serious concerns about the cost and benefits of the enormously ambitious project. Surely fewer European countries showed up at the Beijing summit because of their reservations over China’s reluctance to open doors to foreign companies.
While addressing the forum, President Xi tried to alleviate concerns about China’s dominance, inviting other countries to take part in the project. China is spending roughly $150bn a year in the 68 countries that have so far signed on to the plan. According to Chinese government figures, around $1 trillion have already been invested in OBOR, with several more trillions due to be invested over the next decade. This way Beijing hopes to find a more profitable avenue for the country’s vast foreign exchange reserves, mostly invested in low-interest-bearing US government securities.
It is evident that OBOR is not just about infrastructure development; one of the major objectives of the initiative is to turn Eurasia into an economic and trading centre, breaking the domination of the American-led transatlantic regime. It is also a manifestation of the changing geopolitics and the realignment of forces, reflecting a move to shift the centre of gravity of trade to the East and establish China’s predominance in global politics.
Indeed, Russia has lent active support to the Chinese initiative indicating a growing strategic partnership between the two countries. Moscow’s major interest is to consolidate its primacy in Central Asia through regional security and a trade bloc.
However, it is willing to accommodate China’s economic and geopolitical interests more than ever because of Western sanctions following the Ukraine crisis. Since 2014, the two countries have reached several high-profile multibillion-dollar economic and trade deals signalling their close, evolving economic ties. Unsurprisingly, Russian President Vladimir Putin used the forum to lash out at the US and other Western countries over their increasingly protectionist policies.
Surely China considers the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) a “flagship project” in the whole scheme of OBOR. This multibillion-dollar investment programme has added a new dimension to the friendship between Pakistan and China. From purely strategic and security cooperation spanning more than five decades, the relationship has now evolved into a dynamic economic and commercial partnership.
This growing bilateral cooperation comes at a time when China’s rising geopolitical ambition also underscores its concerns about Pakistan’s security and its fledgling economy. Given its geostrategic position, Pakistan has the potential to serve as a nexus for the two routes — the continental Eurasian Silk Road Economic Belt and a Southeast Asian Maritime Silk Road
Although Beijing downplays geostrategic motivations, CPEC represents an international extension of China’s effort to deliver security through economic development. Notwithstanding their growing strategic cooperation, terrorist sanctuaries in Pakistan have remained a major source of worry for the Chinese government. China’s security concerns, especially those that arise from its restive region of Xinjiang, and the Islamist militancy threatening Pakistan’s stability have also been a strong factor in Beijing’s new approach to achieving security through economic development.
This growing Pakistan-China strategic alliance has also exposed the regional geopolitical fault lines. Predictably, India boycotted the Beijing forum citing serious reservations about the project, particularly regarding China-funded development in Gilgit-Baltistan that is linked to the Kashmir dispute. Yet another excuse given by the Indian authorities was that a trans-regional project of this magnitude required wider consultation.
Despite their geopolitical rivalry and long-standing border dispute, trade between India and China has grown significantly crossing $100bn. But there have been some visible signs of tension between the two most populous nations in the past few years with the strengthening of ties between Washington and New Delhi. India has openly sided with the US and Japan against China over the South China Sea issue.
Indeed, the success of the summit has provoked a strong reaction from Delhi. So much so that some leading commentators have called for tougher action to obstruct the OBOR project. “Far from this, CPEC (the life and soul of OBOR) threatens India’s territorial integrity in a manner unseen since 1962,” Samir Saran, a leading Indian commentator wrote in an op-ed piece.
Notwithstanding the scepticism, OBOR is a new geo-economic reality representing an emerging world order. The process cannot be reversed.
[The writer is an author and journalist]
http://southasianmonitor.com/2017/05/17/chinas-new-world-order/
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Feature: China's high-tech creates footprints in Belt and Road routes countries
Source: Xinhua| 2017-05-19 14:24:15|Editor: Hou Qiang
BEIJING, May 19 (Xinhua) -- "This mobile container/vehicle inspection system will soon be delivered to Mexico... It is advanced in that it can erect an arch within several minitues to inspect moving vehicles without stopping them," Cai Zhifu, a worker of Nuctech company, told Xinhua in a recent intervew in Beijing.
Nuctech, derived from China's Tsinghua University and founded in 1997, is an advanced security and inspection solution and service supplier in the world.
The Chinese high-tech company impressed visitors and its potential customers with the world's first 3D scanner for airports at the 17th edition of the Airport Show held on May 15-17 in Dubai, the most populous city of the United Arab Emirates.
Its security equipment and solution have been installed in more than 150 countries and regions worldwide, including more than 50 countries along the Belt and Road routes, which covered customs, civil aviation, railway, postal logistics, border security and other areas, to help fight terrorism, maintain security and protect people's lives and property.
The China-made advanced equipment and system have performed well around the world, namely, in the Palestine-Israel border, the English Channel and the Port of Hamburg in German, and at major international events, such as Olympic Games in Beijing and Brazi's Rio, G20 summit in China's Hangzhou and World Expo in Milan, Italy.
In 2002, Nuctech equipment won reputation by defeating German and U.S. products in an inspection test, during which Nuctech inspected drugs hidden inside a vehicle while the other two failed.
To maintain the highest level of detection, the company will frequently upgrade their systems to compete with terrorists and lawbreakers, who usually upgrade their criminal means, said Wang Weidong, vice chairman of Nuctech.
In 2016, a just-upgraded Nuctech equipment helped Australian Border Security seize 254 kg of cocaine and 104 kg of methamphetamine, worth 186 million U.S. dollars.
Under the Belt and Road Initiative, China's innovative high-tech has brought tangible benefits to countries along the routes, especially in the developing countries, and won local people's recognition.
In Sri Lanka, more than 500 cataract sufferers regained sight in the end of last year, thanks to China-made intraocular lens innovated by Eyebright Medical Group.
Eyebright, a national high-tech enterprise focusing on protection and caring of eyes and vision health, launched in 2014 the first China developed foldable aspheric intraocular lens, breaking the dominance of foreign products in this field.
"Sri Lanka doctors look at the Chinese intraocular lens with new eyes, and many local cataract patients came to seek help," said Zhang Shunhua, doctor at Peking Union Medical College Hospital, who joined a Chinese government medical mission to Sri Lanka specialized in cataract treatment last year.
Through China's overseas medical assistance mission, Eyebright's products have helped people in many countries, including Cambodia, Sudan and Congo, to regain sight.
Nuctech and Eyebright are only two examples of many Chinese innovative enterprises, which have reached the Belt and Road routes countries and in turn have been supported by the initiative, proposed by Chinese President Xi Jinping in 2013, with an aim to build trade and infrastructure networks connecting Asia with Europe and Africa along and beyond the ancient Silk Road routes.
Over recent years, many Chinese high-tech companies, like telecom giants Xiaomi, Huawei and CRRC, supported by the Belt and Road Initiative, have opened up foreign markets, helping make innovation a new "name card" for China.
Chinese companies, especially those that are hosted and supported by Zhongguancun, a high-tech hub in the Chinese capital city, are trying to share with other countries their expertise in telecommunication and information technologies.
Technological innovation is an important momentum for development. China, with innovative technology and superb products, has begun to provide Chinese solutions and expertise to other countries, rather than the mere made-in-China products, to realize common prosperity.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-05-19 14:24:15|Editor: Hou Qiang
BEIJING, May 19 (Xinhua) -- "This mobile container/vehicle inspection system will soon be delivered to Mexico... It is advanced in that it can erect an arch within several minitues to inspect moving vehicles without stopping them," Cai Zhifu, a worker of Nuctech company, told Xinhua in a recent intervew in Beijing.
Nuctech, derived from China's Tsinghua University and founded in 1997, is an advanced security and inspection solution and service supplier in the world.
The Chinese high-tech company impressed visitors and its potential customers with the world's first 3D scanner for airports at the 17th edition of the Airport Show held on May 15-17 in Dubai, the most populous city of the United Arab Emirates.
Its security equipment and solution have been installed in more than 150 countries and regions worldwide, including more than 50 countries along the Belt and Road routes, which covered customs, civil aviation, railway, postal logistics, border security and other areas, to help fight terrorism, maintain security and protect people's lives and property.
The China-made advanced equipment and system have performed well around the world, namely, in the Palestine-Israel border, the English Channel and the Port of Hamburg in German, and at major international events, such as Olympic Games in Beijing and Brazi's Rio, G20 summit in China's Hangzhou and World Expo in Milan, Italy.
In 2002, Nuctech equipment won reputation by defeating German and U.S. products in an inspection test, during which Nuctech inspected drugs hidden inside a vehicle while the other two failed.
To maintain the highest level of detection, the company will frequently upgrade their systems to compete with terrorists and lawbreakers, who usually upgrade their criminal means, said Wang Weidong, vice chairman of Nuctech.
In 2016, a just-upgraded Nuctech equipment helped Australian Border Security seize 254 kg of cocaine and 104 kg of methamphetamine, worth 186 million U.S. dollars.
Under the Belt and Road Initiative, China's innovative high-tech has brought tangible benefits to countries along the routes, especially in the developing countries, and won local people's recognition.
In Sri Lanka, more than 500 cataract sufferers regained sight in the end of last year, thanks to China-made intraocular lens innovated by Eyebright Medical Group.
Eyebright, a national high-tech enterprise focusing on protection and caring of eyes and vision health, launched in 2014 the first China developed foldable aspheric intraocular lens, breaking the dominance of foreign products in this field.
"Sri Lanka doctors look at the Chinese intraocular lens with new eyes, and many local cataract patients came to seek help," said Zhang Shunhua, doctor at Peking Union Medical College Hospital, who joined a Chinese government medical mission to Sri Lanka specialized in cataract treatment last year.
Through China's overseas medical assistance mission, Eyebright's products have helped people in many countries, including Cambodia, Sudan and Congo, to regain sight.
Nuctech and Eyebright are only two examples of many Chinese innovative enterprises, which have reached the Belt and Road routes countries and in turn have been supported by the initiative, proposed by Chinese President Xi Jinping in 2013, with an aim to build trade and infrastructure networks connecting Asia with Europe and Africa along and beyond the ancient Silk Road routes.
Over recent years, many Chinese high-tech companies, like telecom giants Xiaomi, Huawei and CRRC, supported by the Belt and Road Initiative, have opened up foreign markets, helping make innovation a new "name card" for China.
Chinese companies, especially those that are hosted and supported by Zhongguancun, a high-tech hub in the Chinese capital city, are trying to share with other countries their expertise in telecommunication and information technologies.
Technological innovation is an important momentum for development. China, with innovative technology and superb products, has begun to provide Chinese solutions and expertise to other countries, rather than the mere made-in-China products, to realize common prosperity.
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