The “One Belt and One Road”: the Bridge between the Chinese Dream and the World Dream

By Zhao Zhouxian and Liu Guang



The “One Belt and One Road”: the Bridge between the Chinese Dream and the World Dream

By Zhao Zhouxian and Liu Guang

National Defense University

As time goes by, the Silk Road has undergone tremendous changes, and witnessed new development opportunities. In September and October 2013, President Xi Jinping put forward building the "Silk Road Economic Belt" and "the Twenty-First Century Maritime Silk Road" initiative on the visit to Kazakhstan, and the ASEAN countries respectively. To build the "One Belt and One Road" is the profound strategic conception put forward by the CPC Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping as the General Secretary, focusing on adherence to and further development of socialism with Chinese characteristics and realizing the Chinese dream of great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation. To seize the opportunity to promote implementation of the strategic conception is bound to open up a new situation and create new opportunities to realize the Chinese dream, and will inject more new energy and new vitality into the world dream.

Strategic Measures to Realize Peaceful Development

The world history since modern time is, in a certain sense, the "iron powder-blood history" of Western major powers military rise. The Chinese Communist Party leads the Chinese people in getting rid of the outdated historical logic-- "a powerful country is bound to become hegemony"-- and in adhering to the road of peaceful development. Comrade Xi Jinping stresses that China has entered the critical stage of building a moderately prosperous society in all respects. To achieve this goal is a key step in realizing the Chinese dream of great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation. At this critical stage, we are faced with the pressure and resistance of hitherto unknown. The "One Belt and One Road" strategic conception is the major decision at the critical phase for China to become strong from being big adopted by the CPC Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping as the General Secretary. To promote the implementation of this decision will play an important strategic supporting role in Chinese peaceful development.

The "One Belt and One Road" is a path to peace. In the world, Asia is the region with the most dynamic development and filled with potential for development, and is also a focus of current international strategic competitions and games-play. In the face of the security situation composed of interwoven problems such as the surrounding territorial disputes over sovereignty, major powers geopolitical games, and ethnic and religious contradictions, China adheres to the concept of "friendship, sincerity, benefit and inclusiveness", actively advocates a common, comprehensive, cooperative and sustainable Asian security concept, pointing to a commonly-built, joint-sharing, and win-win Asian security road. To build the "One Belt and One Road" is to help relevant countries to promote common security through cooperation, effectively control differences and disputes, promote coordinated and harmonious state to state relationship, so that various countries along the "One Belt and One Road" can step onto the road of peace and development. At the same time, it also bears significance to ensure China's strategic security, expand strategic space, stabilize energy supply, guarantee economic security, and break through its strategic encirclement.

Mutual political trust and strategic docking among countries are critical for promoting peaceful development. Comrade Xi Jinping stresses keeping honest with each other, fearing no differences, evading no issues, making full communication on their foreign policy and development strategy, enhancing political mutual trust, and promoting strategic docking. Comrade Xi Jinping expresses during his visit to Russia his welcome to Russia to participate in building the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21stCentury Maritime Silk Road, and to make it a new platform for bilateral comprehensive strategic coordinate partnership development. During his visit to other European countries, he further points out that to build a bridge of civilization and common prosperity to connect the two civilizations between China and Europe. These initiatives have won approval and positive response by heads of state on his visits. The "One Belt and One Road" is channels to win-win cooperation and benefits to all parties concerned, and the effective platform for China and other major powers to achieve strategic docking, and realize the strategic coordination among them.

Promoting the peaceful development of China needs support by economic and trade cooperation with other countries, and cannot be separated from cultural exchanges. President Xi Jinping points out that popular communication is important content of building the "One Belt and One Road", and also is the key foundation. For thousands of years, the Silk Road has carried the spirit of peace cooperation, openness and inclusiveness, mutual learning, mutual benefit and win-win cooperation and passes on like the torch-relay, and emphasized that carrying forward the spirit of the Silk Road is to promote mutual learning among civilizations, respect the choice of a model, adhere to the win-win cooperation, and advocate dialogue and exchange. The "One Belt and One Road" strategic conception is involved in dozens of countries, and billions of population, and these countries created different forms and different styles of civilization in history. To build the "One Belt and One Road" needs to inherit and carry forward the "the Silk Road spirit ", fully explore the profound historical and cultural resources, and actively play the role of cultural exchanges and cooperation, and promote common development of different civilizations. This will effectively promote the grandeurs contemporary civilization exchanges, and also create a good environment of peace and development for China and the world as well.

The Strategic Plan to Create Chinese Economic Upgraded Version

Since the 18thCPC National Congress, China’s economic development enters the stage of transformation and upgrading. To build an upgraded version, and incubate "another spring", the key move is to further release the dividends of deepening reform and opening up. To build the "One Belt and One Road" is an important part of comprehensively deepening the reform, and is to promote the adjustment of economic structure through expansion of opening up, and a pragmatic move to promote economic development through internal attraction and external contacts, and is the major strategic initiative to adapt to requirements of China's economic transformation and upgrading.

Since the Third Plenary Session of the 11thCPCCC, China’s opening up to the outside world gradually extended from points to lines, from lines to the whole country, from the South to the North, and from the East to the West. From setting up special economic zones to opening coastal port cities, to further developing coastal economic zones, from promoting border region and regions along the Yangtze River as well as the hinterland provinces opening-up to the outside world to formally accession to the World Trade Organization, the opening-up breadth and depth of China continue to expand. To build the "One Belt and One Road" is the CPC’s strategy, under the epoch conditions of profound changes in the domestic and international situations, on pushing forward a new round of opening-up with new ideas, conducive to the realization of domestic and international interaction and cooperation, and to mutual promotion between internal opening-up and opening-up to outside world, so as to make better use of two markets, and two resources, expand development space, and release the potential of development.

Since outbreak of the international financial crisis, the market demand in developed countries becomes significantly weakened, China’s export-oriented economy growth is affected. In the meantime, Chinese economy after having experienced rapid growth for a long time, the structural contradictions and the pressure of excessive production capacity become highlighted. To build the Silk Road Economic Belt is a new engine for creating China's economic upgraded version, capable of shaping new Asia-European trade channels and economic development belts, promoting China’s inland regions to open up to its western region, and expanding the space of the western economic development. To build the Twenty-first Century Maritime Silk Road is to create a new fulcrum for eastern economy upgrade version, can drive the coastal areas optimizing foreign trade structure, promote economic restructuring and upgrading, alleviate pressures on resources and environment, and create a new situation for joint development with the Southeast Asian countries.

Development potential is a development space, the greater the development potential in a place, the greater the development space. Complementarity is mutual benefit, the greater the complementary development, the more converging points for mutually beneficial and win-win interests. Relevant countries and regions along the "One Belt and One Road" have strong development potential, formulating strong complementarities with China’s economic development. From a global perspective, regional cooperation between Asia and its surrounding countries lags behind, such as impassable infrastructure not interconnected, or interconnection without associability, or associability without smoothness, which restricts further development of regional cooperation. The "One Belt and One Road" construction respectively promote connectivity from onshore and offshore, expand and open channels, can facilitate countries concerned deepening regional cooperation on the basis of equality and mutual benefit, and can insert strong wings for Asia's overall take-off. To strengthen policy communications, road interconnection, trade flow, currency circulation, people-to-people affection, and find converging interests points, can achieve the effective docking of economic development strategy, and gradually shape a new pattern of large-scale regional cooperation.

The Strategic Tie Linking the Chinese Dream with the Dream of the World

Comrade Xi Jinping stresses that the Chinese dream is the dream of peace, development, cooperation, and win-win, and interlinked with the beautiful dreams of people of all countries, the Chinese people are ready to work with them all together to realize the world dream. The "One Belt and One Road" connects more closely the Chinese dream with the world dream, and is a strategic tie for people of countries concerned to realize their dreams.

Because regions along the Silk Road has the important location advantages, with rich natural resources and broad prospects for development, the relevant countries in recent years have put forward the strategic conceptions directed at this region, among which influential ones include the Japanese "Silk Road diplomacy strategy", the "North-South Corridor Plans" by India, Russia, etc. the EU's "New Silk Road Program" and the U.S. "New Silk Road Strategy", etc. The trade liberalization strategy or regional economic cooperation plan by world's major countries targeted at this region help create opportunities for China to implement the "One Belt and One Road" strategy. Comrade Xi Jinping emphasizes transforming the world opportunities into the Chinese opportunities, and transforming Chinese opportunities into the world opportunities, and advancing in sound interaction, mutual benefit and win-win development between China and other countries. To build the "One Belt and One Road" can give full play to the existing mechanisms such as the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, ASEAN "10+1", the China-Arab Cooperation Forum and, promote economic elements within the region to orderly and freely flow and their optimized allocation, drive economic transition and development for related countries. This can create good conditions for China to realize its dream, and also radiate to relevant countries and regions the "Chinese dividend", hence, realizing the strategic opportunity docking and interconnecting. More importantly, to build the "One Belt and One Road" can shape a "tripartite " posture with the European Union and the North American Free Trade Area, accelerate the formation of a new international economic pattern, and produce a far-reaching impact on the economic globalization.

Recent years witness in-depth development of the world multi- polarization and economic globalization; countries around the world are more and more closely connected together, forming a complex whole situation. The number of Chinese citizens and enterprises go abroad set new records. To build the "One Belt and One Road" is not beneficial to China exclusively, but to all countries concerned. To build the "One Belt and One Road" fully demonstrates China’s spirit of taking responsibilities and an attitude of mutual benefit and win-win cooperation, is conducive to promoting to a new level cooperation in all areas of political, economic and trade, humanitarian and cultural, security, etc. with all relevant countries, jointly create a community of interests, a community of destiny and a community of responsibility featuring political mutual trust, economic integration and cultural inclusiveness and really make the Chinese dream and the world dream interconnected and enhance beauty to each other.

. Under the new situation, China actively advocates the correct outlook on rights and benefit, politically, upholds fairness and justice, adheres to equality to each other, complies with the basic principles of international relations, opposes hegemonism and power politics, opposes keeping one's own interests at the cost of others interests, and undermining regional peace and stability. Economically, it adheres to mutual benefit and win-win cooperation, as well as common development. To build the "One Belt and One Road" is actual measures for China to practice correct outlook on rights and benefit, not only to safeguard and realize the fundamental interests of the Chinese people, but also take into consideration the common interests of the relevant countries and regions. These ideas and actions comply with aspirations of the world people, highlight the right way in the human world, win recognition across the board, build a bridge connecting the Chinese dream with the world dream, write a new chapter of realizing the dream.