China’s Belt & Road Initiative: The Defining Global Trade Project of Our Century

The announcement that a U.S. delegation would be coming to what is China's biggest diplomatic event of the year, China's Belt and Road forum for International Cooperation (watch video above), coincides with the unveiling of an important trade deal between China and the United States.

The deal, the first tangible result of trade talks that began last month, will see China allow U.S imports of beef no later than July 16.

By that deadline, the United States said it would issue a proposed rule to allow Chinese cooked poultry to enter U.S. markets.

China will also allow increased access for American financial firms.

Watch: The New Silk Road Becomes the World Land-Bridge, A Tour

In return, the United States said it “recognizes the importance” of the plan for a new Silk Road, known as the Belt and Road initiative, and would send a delegation to a conference on it in Beijing, delivering a symbolic boost to Chinese President Xi Jinping's signature foreign and economic policy.

The forum is seen as one of China's competing initiatives against the Obama administration's regional trade pact, the Trans-Pacific Partnership, which did not include China.

But U.S. President Donald Trump withdrew the United States from the partnership in January, effectively killing the deal.

“The United States has realized the importance of the Belt and Road Initiative and will send its delegates to attend the summit,” vice finance minister Zhu Guangyao said in an earlier news briefing on Friday.

China's President Xi Jinping greets Russian President Vladimir Putin who is attending the Belt and Road Forum in Beijing.

President Xi Says to Build Belt and Road into Road for Peace, Prosperity
China's President Xi Jinping said Sunday, at the Belt and Road forum, the Belt and Road should be built into a road for peace, as the pursuit of the initiative requires a peaceful and stable environment.

“The ancient silk routes thrived in times of peace, but lost vigor in times of war. The pursuit of the Belt and Road Initiative requires a peaceful and stable environment,” said Xi while delivering a keynote speech at the opening of the two-day Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation in Beijing.

“We should foster a new type of international relations featuring win-win cooperation; and we should forge partnerships of dialogue with no confrontation and of friendship rather than alliance.”

All countries should respect each other's sovereignty, dignity and territorial integrity, each other's development paths and social systems, and each other's core interests and major concerns, said Xi.

“Some regions along the ancient Silk Road used to be a land of milk and honey. Yet today, these places are often associated with conflict, turbulence, crisis and challenge. Such state of affairs should not be allowed to continue,” said Xi.

He called for fostering the vision of common, comprehensive, cooperative and sustainable security, and creating a security environment built and shared by all.

Xi also urged the Belt and Road to be built into a road of prosperity.

“In pursuing the Belt and Road Initiative, we should focus on the fundamental issue of development, release the growth potential of various countries and achieve economic integration and interconnected development and deliver benefits to all.”

He said, “We should establish a stable and sustainable financial safeguard system that keeps risks under control, create new models of investment and financing, encourage greater cooperation between government and private capital and build a diversified financing system and a multi-tiered capital market.”

Stressing infrastructure connectivity, Xi called for promoting land, maritime, air and cyberspace connectivity, focusing on key passageways, cities and projects, and connecting networks of highways, railways and sea ports.

Belt and Road Open to Nations beyond Asia, Europe, Africa
President Xi Jinping also claimed Sunday that the Belt and Road Initiative focuses on the Asian, European and African countries, but is also open to all other countries.

“All countries, from either Asia, Europe, Africa or the Americas, can be international cooperation partners of the Belt and Road Initiative,” Xi said when delivering a keynote speech at the opening ceremony of the Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation.

Pursuit of the initiative is based on extensive consultation and its benefits will be shared by all countries involved, he said.

So far, the initiative has won support from more than 100 countries and international organizations, of which over 40 have signed cooperation agreements with China.

Related Article: China Ramps Up Its Silk Road Initiative