6. How to do it?

How to say "One Belt, One Road" is important, but the more important question is how to do it, because for many countries, they are more concerned about not "how China says it" but "how China does it." From the very beginning of the initiative, Chinese leaders have emphasized that the Belt and Road Initiative is not a solo act by China, but a symphony of countries along the route. We must adhere to the principles of extensive consultation, joint contribution, and sharing, and promote the interconnection of the development strategies of the countries along the route. In the document entrusted by the State Council and released by three ministries and commissions, it emphasized abiding by the purposes and principles of the United Nations Charter and proposed four principles: openness and cooperation, harmony and inclusiveness, market operation, and mutual benefit. This has become the basic concept that must be followed to guide China's ministries, provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities to promote the "One Belt, One Road" initiative. It is also the basic principle that China follows in its dialogue with other countries.

Author: Zhao Kejin is a senior researcher at the Phoenix International Think Tank and an associate professor at the Institute of Contemporary Art, Tsinghua University. He is also a member of the Expert Committee of the Regional Country Research Base of the Ministry of Education, an executive director of the China Association of International Politics in Universities, and a director of the Chinese People's Association for Peace and Disarmament. He was selected as one of the New Century Talents of the Ministry of Education in 2012 and one of the four batches of talents in Beijing in 2015.

After the general principles determined by the country are finalized, ministries, commissions, bureaus, provinces and municipalities still need to establish some specific operational rules when promoting the "One Belt, One Road" initiative. Especially when it comes to issues such as specific project development, fund coordination, policy adjustment, etc., some relatively strong operational norms and ideas must be established within the framework of the general principles determined by the country. Specifically, it includes the following four aspects:

One is market dominance. "One Belt, One Road" is ultimately about resource allocation. All resource allocation always operates in accordance with the laws of market supply and demand. Whether it is infrastructure construction, or trade, investment and capital flows, the most reliable way is to let the market solve the problem and give full play to the decisive role of the market in resource allocation. When ministries, commissions, bureaus, provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities formulate plans to connect the Belt and Road Initiative, they must leave large space to the market, give full play to the market leverage effect, and influence the flow of trade and the orientation of capital. In some specific construction projects, the most important thing is to rely on the independent decision-making of enterprises to minimize the interference with market rules in micro-decision-making.

The second is government guidance. Most of the countries and regions along the “Belt and Road” are developing countries with complex environmental factors such as harsh natural conditions, vast land and sparsely populated areas, and social conflicts. Some areas have long been constrained by various complex social conflicts, and there are high levels of political instability and security risk challenges. If these regions rely solely on the market to allocate resources, they will not be able to achieve breakthroughs in the construction of the “One Belt, One Road” initiative. Therefore, when promoting the construction of the "One Belt and One Road", we must respect the laws of the market and give better play to the role of the government. We must create a good environment conducive to investment and entrepreneurship by providing preferential policies, encouraging institutional innovation, and providing various services. In particular, some key nodes, key projects and major projects require direct government investment when necessary. By establishing special policy areas such as special economic zones, industrial parks, free trade zones, cross-border cooperation zones, tourist resorts, export processing zones, and comprehensive bonded zones, we fully mobilize the enthusiasm of all parties at home and abroad, guide the whole family to work together, and jointly gather powerful forces to promote the construction of the "Belt and Road".

The third is driven by the rule of law. Whether it is market-led or government-led, it must operate on the track of the rule of law. The Belt and Road Initiative is a transnational development initiative that involves many sensitive economic issues, political issues, security issues and social and cultural frictions. Although these issues and frictions can be strongly intervened through political and strategic means, once they are not properly managed, they may lead to serious political consequences. Therefore, in the process of promoting the construction of the "Belt and Road", we must pay attention to the drive of the rule of law, bring issues such as environment, labor standards, human rights, and intellectual property rights into the track of the rule of law, promote the signing of a series of trade and investment agreements among countries along the "Belt and Road", formulate a sound legal system, and build an international treaty system with international trade rules, investment rules, and dispute settlement rules as the core content, and represent the latest development achievements of international economic law in the 21st century. Of course, formulating laws is a very complex issue, involving both the interconnection of legal provisions and the interconnection of law enforcement systems. While formulating laws, we must also pay attention to informal systems, rules, norms and customs to ensure that the “Belt and Road” strategy ultimately achieves long-term and stable development.

The fourth is social services. Precisely because the Belt and Road Initiative is intertwined with very complex historical, cultural, legal, economic, political, security and social issues, it requires the participation of a large number of social actors to provide necessary social services for the Belt and Road Initiative. When all ministries, commissions, bureaus, provinces and municipalities promote the “One Belt and One Road” initiative, they must change their past “government-centrism” habits in the governance of domestic affairs. They must include many social organizations at home and abroad, and listen to the opinions of think tanks and research institutions before making decisions. During decision-making, they must pay attention to the development of excellent human resources in cooperation with universities and various training institutions. After decision-making, they must also cooperate with the media, enterprises and non-governmental organizations to build a sound social service system to provide thoughtful services for the “One Belt and One Road” initiative.

1. What is it?

After the "Belt and Road" initiative was proposed, the international community responded enthusiastically. However, it is not clear what the "Belt and Road" actually is, and the various understandings are also very confusing. Some political figures and strategic figures in some countries have even made the worst possible guesses about China's intentions to promote the "Belt and Road" initiative. In fact, even within Chinese society, there is no unified view on what the "One Belt, One Road" is. Since Chinese leaders successively proposed the "Silk Road Economic Belt" and "21st Century Maritime Silk Road" initiatives, academic circles and public opinion circles have divergent opinions, and the ideological understanding is very confusing. For example, some people believe that the "One Belt and One Road" is China's version of the "Marshall Plan", and its main intention is to obtain the energy resources needed for China's development and transfer excess production capacity overseas; others believe that the "One Belt and One Road" is mainly a strategic tool for China to respond to the rebalancing of the United States' Asia-Pacific strategy, by restoring the historical East Asian tribute system and grabbing regional spheres of influence to challenge the United States' hegemony in the world; others believe that the "One Belt and One Road" will change the status quo of the international order and believe that China wants to penetrate Central Asia, the Middle East, Africa and other regions. With so many understandings intertwined, not only China, Russia, the United States, India, the European Union and other major countries lack a consensus on cooperation, but also domestic public opinion in China is confused and at a loss, which has greatly restricted the construction process of the "Belt and Road".

Judging from the "Vision and Actions on Promoting the Joint Construction of the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road" issued by the National Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Commerce, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs authorized by the State Council on March 28, 2015, the official definition of the "One Belt, One Road" initiative is not very clear. In this document, it is emphasized that the "One Belt, One Road" is a concept and initiative about cooperative development. The meeting relies on existing bilateral and multilateral mechanisms between China and relevant countries, existing and effective regional cooperation platforms, and borrows the historical symbols of the ancient "Silk Road" known to people of all countries to proactively develop economic partnerships with countries along the route and jointly build a community of interests, a community of destiny, and a community of responsibility featuring political mutual trust, economic integration, and cultural tolerance. Historically, silk is one of China's business cards. Although the "Silk Road" uses Chinese silk as its brand, it was not proposed and pioneered by the Chinese, but a term proposed by Europeans. It was originally a metaphor for the trade channel linking the East and the West. According to research, the "Silk Road" was first proposed by the German geographer Richthofen in his book "China" in 1877. It refers to the trade routes between China, Central Asia and India from 114 BC to 127 AD using silk trade as a medium. After it was proposed, it was quickly accepted by the academic community and the public. Both Western and Chinese historians ignited the enthusiasm for studying the ancient Silk Road.

Obviously, China’s mention of the “Silk Road” in the early 21st century is definitely not a return to the past. In the minds of many people in Central Asian countries, the “ancient Silk Road” of the past is easily associated with the nightmare of the Mongolian army’s “competition and massacre”. China's emphasis on jointly building the "Silk Road Economic Belt" and the "21st Century Maritime Silk Road" does not mean going back to the past, but simply borrowing the historical symbols of the "Silk Road". What it emphasizes is the joint building of partnerships among countries along the routes. According to the official authoritative explanation of the Chinese government, the joint construction of the "Belt and Road" "aims to promote the orderly and free flow of economic factors, efficient resource allocation and deep market integration, promote economic policy coordination among countries along the route, carry out larger-scale, higher-level, and deeper regional cooperation, and jointly build an open, inclusive, balanced, and universally beneficial regional economic cooperation architecture." Therefore, the joint construction of an open, inclusive, and balanced regional economic cooperation architecture The inclusive regional economic cooperation structure is the development vision of the "Belt and Road". It is essentially an international public product that is negotiated, co-constructed and shared by all parties. It is non-competitive, non-exclusive and non-zero-sum. Regardless of whether it belongs to the countries along the "Belt and Road", all parties who are willing to participate can participate. It is an open community of interests, destiny and responsibility.

Based on its nature as an international public good, the Belt and Road Initiative can be distinguished from many exclusive international organizations and international systems. First of all, the Belt and Road Initiative is not a formal international organization or system, but an informal and non-binding cooperation initiative. Unlike the United Nations, the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, the World Trade Organization, the World Health Organization, the International Meteorological Organization and other formal international organizations and international systems, it has no clear rights and obligations, nor strict normative procedures. It has no council, secretariat and a series of international public administrative agencies. It comes and goes freely, comes and goes at will, and is not bound by the provisions of any international system. It is neither a state or an inter-state organization, nor a non-state actor, nor a member state in the strict sense. For any state or non-state actor, as long as it is interested in the Belt and Road Initiative and is willing to participate in Belt and Road-related projects, it is a stakeholder of the Belt and Road Initiative. Secondly, the “Belt and Road Initiative” is not China’s international strategy or Asia strategy, but a cooperation initiative with strategic impact. China has its own peripheral strategy. Some contents in the "One Belt, One Road" initiative overlap with China's peripheral strategy. However, "One Belt, One Road" is not equal to China's peripheral strategy. Not only does a large amount of content in the "One Belt, One Road" initiative exceed the scope of China's peripheral strategy, but also some contents in China's peripheral strategy are not included in the "One Belt, One Road" initiative. The two overlap and echo each other but are independent of each other. In addition, the "One Belt and One Road" initiative is not a "solo" by China, but a "chorus" shared by the countries along the route. Whether from the historical experience and lessons of the Steppe Empire, the Arab Empire, the Alexander Empire, the contemporary Soviet Union and the United States in Central Asia and the Middle East, or from the perspective of China’s national strength, the “One Belt and One Road” greatly exceeds the power of China alone. The “One Belt and One Road” is a long-term cooperation initiative that requires all countries along the route and even the world. Only the people of countries and regions who are willing to participate can work together to achieve success. China will not pursue a hegemonic "sphere of influence", nor will it dominate the Belt and Road construction process. It can only adopt bilateral and multilateral efforts to bring together the expectations of all parties and promote the gradual deepening of the Belt and Road construction in the spirit of the principle of extensive consultation, joint construction and sharing. It cannot be achieved overnight.

2. Why?

Since the beginning of the 21st century, the globalization trend led by Europe and the United States has entered a period of self-adjustment. The economic virtualization of developed countries and the economic realization of emerging economies have intertwined and developed. The entire world economy is facing the pressure of rebalancing. Since the reform and opening up, driven by economic globalization, China's economy has developed rapidly, especially in textile, steel, building materials, non-ferrous metals and other industries. China's production capacity has grown rapidly, requiring China to obtain more sources of raw materials and sales markets. China's dependence on overseas energy resources and markets has increased significantly. However, marked by the September 11 Incident and the outbreak of the global financial crisis, market demand in developed Western economies has been suppressed. Various anti-dumping, countervailing and various protectionist measures have put tremendous pressure on the economic relations between China and Western countries. The relationship between China and Western countries has changed, and the markets of Western countries are no longer as open as before. As a result, China's growing production capacity and the shrinking market space of Western countries have formed a sharp contradiction. How to find new markets, new spaces and new outlets for China's advantageous production capacity and actively promote international production capacity cooperation has become an urgent issue facing the Chinese economy in the new era. At the same time, the long-term basic policy of reform and opening up has also objectively formed a mindset in China's development that revolves around Western countries, especially the United States, and has even given rise to a deep-rooted Western-centrism tendency. Especially in the southeastern coastal areas, there seems to be no other way to go except to follow the footsteps of Western countries. Western countries are great beauties. As long as Western countries praise them, they will be very proud. They lack the courage to fight against the international economic system and economic order dominated by European and American countries. It seems that there is nothing else in the world except Europe and the United States. The so-called international cooperation is more understood as cooperation with Europe and the United States.

However, while the European and American markets have shrunk in recent years, the status of emerging economies and developing country markets in the overall pattern of China's foreign economic relations has been rapidly rising. The trade volume between China and ASEAN countries has achieved 20% growth for five consecutive years. The trade volume between China and Central Asian countries has also experienced a linear jump since 2005, and energy resources cooperation has become a highlight. The trade volume between China and Africa has also grown from just over 30 billion US dollars per year to more than 160 billion US dollars. Although international public opinion led by Western countries is not optimistic about the prospects of developing countries, and regional instability, political turmoil, terrorism and sectarian conflicts have plagued the development of developing countries, economic cooperation between China and developing countries has shown a booming momentum. Some Western media have even accused China of "neo-colonialism" and condoning corruption. , neglect of human rights, environmental damage and other issues, but the majority of developing countries are very active in cooperation with China. Based on platforms such as the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation, the China-Latin America Cooperation Forum, the China-Arab States Cooperation Forum, the China-ASEAN Free Trade Area, and the China-Central and Eastern European Countries Leaders’ Dialogue, China’s cooperation with countries along the “Belt and Road” has made rapid progress in recent years, and the situation is gratifying.

Therefore, the proposal of the "One Belt, One Road" initiative is a product of the rebalancing of China's relations with the world made by Chinese government leaders by comprehensively considering the relationship between China and Western developed countries and the relationship between China and countries along the "Belt and Road". It is the result of China's initiative to adapt to new situations and new challenges in the context of the era when the entire international situation is facing deep adjustments to globalization and rebalancing of the world economy. In this sense, the “One Belt and One Road” initiative means that China will proactively adjust its development strategy of over-reliance on developed countries in Europe and the United States. It will focus on emerging economies and developing countries along the “One Belt and One Road” countries as new growth points for China’s next development, and then make a series of adjustments in markets, resources and rules. As the entire Western economy faces heavy pressure to recover, transform and upgrade, it is necessary and timely for China to make adjustments to the Belt and Road Initiative. Once this adjustment is in place, China will gain new development space and opportunities.

From the overall domestic perspective, the "One Belt and One Road" is also the road to realizing the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation. The most fundamental reason why China advocates the "One Belt and One Road" is that China's development has entered the "new normal". China's domestic development structure has also become imbalanced, requiring a rebalancing of the domestic open space to the outside world. It requires China's domestic development space to shift from a one-sided reliance on the southeastern coastal provinces to an overall consideration of the southeastern coastal areas, inland areas and border areas. The "One Belt and One Road" is also a product of the rebalancing of domestic development strategies.

China's development cannot be separated from the world. Since the late 1970s, China has embarked on a development path of actively integrating into the mainstream international society through reform and opening up. China's development has become increasingly closely linked to the development of the entire world, becoming a community with a shared future in which everyone prospers and everyone suffers. Especially since entering the 21st century, China has joined the World Trade Organization. Over the past decade since joining the WTO, China's economy has achieved sustained and rapid development. In 2010, it surpassed Japan and became the world's second largest economic power. Its comprehensive national strength and international influence have been improved through innovation. However, while China's economy is developing rapidly, China has also encountered a large number of new problems and challenges. From a strategic perspective, China is increasingly facing the problems of unbalanced development pattern, blocked development context, and unmatched and uncoordinated infrastructure, which have restricted China's potential and stamina for peaceful development. On the one hand, the eastern coastal areas, urban areas and some groups that got rich first have achieved long-term development and have become increasingly close to the international community. On the other hand, the gap between the central and western regions, the vast rural hinterland and disadvantaged groups and the developed regions and groups that got rich first is also rapidly widening. The energy, resources, population, ecology and institutional mechanisms that support economic development are also facing new bottlenecks. If these problems cannot be solved in a timely and appropriate manner, the internal tensions in China's economic development will gradually be released. Unbalanced regional development, polarization of income distribution gaps, and pressure on the ecological environment will become the root cause of the collapse of existing institutional mechanisms and social and political instability.

Facing various new problems and challenges encountered in China's economic and social development, Chinese leaders have been seeking to solve them through adjustment, reform and innovation. Especially since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, the new central leadership represented by Xi Jinping has collectively realized that the abnormal model of rapid development for more than 30 years has become unsustainable. China's economic and social development is facing a "three-phase superposition" pressure of growth speed entering a shifting period, structural adjustment facing a period of pain, and early stimulus policies entering a digestion period. To this end, central leaders have clearly put forward the important idea of ​​the "Chinese Dream" to realize the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation, clarified the "Two Centenary Goals" and the "Four Comprehensives" strategic layout, emphasizing that China's economic and social development has entered a new normal, shifting from high-speed growth to medium-to-high-speed growth, constantly optimizing and upgrading the economic structure, and changing the development momentum from factor-driven and investment-driven to innovation-driven. Starting from the current phased characteristics of my country's economic development, we must adapt to the new normal and maintain a strategically normal mentality. To this end, new policy guidelines have been established in terms of economic policy that macro policies must be stable, micro policies must be loosened, and social policies must support the bottom line, avoiding the practice of frequently stimulating the economy at the slightest motive. Therefore, in adapting to the new normal, China is increasingly emphasizing on following the trend while respecting the laws, and planning three major strategies: "One Belt, One Road", Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei coordinated development and the Yangtze River Economic Belt. They are all development strategies under the new normal to solve the problems of economic ups and downs and seek sustainable and stable economic and social development.