Skip to main content

Advertisement

Advertisement

Xi positions China as champion of globalisation as US turns inwards

BEIJING — Chinese President Xi Jinping criticised protectionism yesterday at a summit positioning Beijing as a champion of globalisation with the United States turning inwards under President Donald Trump.

Chinese President Xi Jinping speaks during a briefing on the final day of the Belt and Road Forum, at the Yanqi Lake International Conference Center north of Beijing on May 15, 2017. Photo: AFP

Chinese President Xi Jinping speaks during a briefing on the final day of the Belt and Road Forum, at the Yanqi Lake International Conference Center north of Beijing on May 15, 2017. Photo: AFP

BEIJING — Chinese President Xi Jinping criticised protectionism yesterday at a summit positioning Beijing as a champion of globalisation with the United States turning inwards under President Donald Trump.

“Globalisation is encountering some headwinds,” Mr Xi told nearly 30 state and government heads as well as delegates from more than 100 countries — including the United States and North Korea — on the final day of the inaugural Belt and Road summit.

“We need to seek results through greater openness and cooperation, avoid fragmentation, refrain from setting inhibitive thresholds for cooperation or pursuing exclusive arrangements and rejecting protectionism.”

He compared countries to “swan and geese” that can “fly long and safely through winds and storms because they move in tandem and help each other as a team”.

The summit is dedicated to Mr Xi’s cornerstone economic diplomatic project, the Belt and Road Initiative. The initiative spans 65 countries representing 60 per cent of the world population and around a third of global gross domestic product. Mr Xi pledged on Sunday to pump an extra US$124 billion (S$173 billion) into the China-bankrolled project, which involves a huge network of ports, railways, roads and industrial parks. The China Development Bank had already earmarked US$890 billion for some 900 projects.

Later yesterday, Mr Xi announced that the two-day summit reached “broad consensus” on the project and that China will host a new forum in 2019. “This forum has sent a positive message to the rest of the world that we will work together to advance Belt and Road cooperation and build a future of shared prosperity for mankind,” he said after the close of the summit.

A summit communique released at the end of the meeting said the leaders recognised the challenges the world economy faced. They welcomed the Belt and Road Initiative to improve connectivity between Asia and Europe, noting that it was important to expanding trade and investment based on a level playing field.

The countries also encouraged all signatories of the Paris climate-change agreement to fully implement the accord.

China has defended globalisation at a time when the US is retreating into “America First” policies on trade and foreign relations under Mr Trump.

While some see Beijing’s project as a geopolitical power play, Mr Xi has insisted that the Belt and Road is open to everybody. “In a world of growth, interdependence and challenges, no country can tackle the challenges or solve the world’s problems on its own,” he said as he sat next to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

He urged major multilateral institutions to join the initiative, saying it was necessary to coordinate policies with the development goals of institutions including the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation, the Association of South-east Asian Nations, African Union and the European Union.

“We need to improve policy coordination and reject beggar-thy-neighbour practices. This is an important lesson that can be drawn from the global financial crisis and is still very relevant to the development of the world economy today.”

Mr Putin and other leaders at the summit praised Mr Xi’s project.

“Today any signals that would give hope for stability are in demand. In that sense, the Chinese initiative is very timely and very useful,” Mr Putin told reporters. AGENCIES

Read more of the latest in

Advertisement

Advertisement

Stay in the know. Anytime. Anywhere.

Subscribe to get daily news updates, insights and must reads delivered straight to your inbox.

By clicking subscribe, I agree for my personal data to be used to send me TODAY newsletters, promotional offers and for research and analysis.