- China is all set to become the world’s largest economy
Reportedly Chinese Foreign Minister and State Councillor Wang Yi, in a meeting with the Dutch Foreign Minister on the sidelines of G 20 foreign minister’s conference in Japan, said that the USA was the biggest source of instability in the world and added that China’s development and growth was an inevitable trend of history that no force could stop. Though he made these remarks in the backdrop of the current trade war between the two countries and the US support to the protesters in Hong Kong but he was right on the money while pinpointing these irrefutable realities. The USA undoubtedly is involved in either fomenting or supporting conflicts around the world and its trade war against China lacks rationality which could have adverse impact on the global economy.
China over the past four decades has become the number two economic power of the world, and is poised to play a major role on the economic and political stage at the global level. Economists and political analysts believe that China would be the number one economic power of the world by 2050 and the indications are that no matter what the USA and its allies do to obstruct that process, it has become unstoppable in achieving that distinction.
China has become unstoppable. The Chinese Foreign Minister rightly observed “There is no way out for the zero-sum games of the USA. Only win-win cooperation between China and the USA is the right path.”
Over the last 40 years, the GDP of China has been expanding at an average rate of 9.5 percent, which is phenomenal. The result is that China now accounts for 30 percent of global GDP. The reforms set in train in 1978 were premised on special economic zones in several provinces; introduction of a household responsibility system that allowed households to contract land, machinery and other facilities from collective organizations; the consolidation of state-owned enterprises and accession to WTO in 2001. These policies boosted foreign investments exponentially besides encouraging entrepreneurship. The willingness of the Chinese leaders to implement pragmatic and impregnable economic policies enabled the country to escape the poverty trap and gave its 800 million people upper-middle class income status.
The BRI initiative launched by President Xi Jin Ping in 2013, which aims to connect China with Asia, Europe and Africa via land and sea-based infrastructure development, manifests its economic prowess to propel global development through partnership and connectivity with an explicit aim of shared global prosperity. President Xi, while addressing THE second Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation in Beijing, vividly described the achievements of the initiative so far and gave an encouraging perspective on the future aims of the cooperation. He said “What we have achieved amply demonstrates that Belt and Road cooperation has both generated new opportunities for the development of all participating countries and opened up new horizons for China’s development and opening-up. We need to be guided by the principle of extensive consultation, joint contribution and shared benefits. We need to act in the spirit of multilateralism, pursue cooperation through consultation and keep all participants motivated. We may, by engaging in bilateral, trilateral and multilateral cooperation, fully tap into the strengths of all participants. We need to take a people-centred approach, give priority to poverty alleviation and job creation to see that the joint pursuit of Belt and Road cooperation will deliver true benefits to the people of participating countries and contribute to their social and economic development. We also need to ensure the commercial and fiscal sustainability of all projects so that they will achieve the intended goals as planned. Connectivity is vital to advancing Belt and Road cooperation. We need to promote a global partnership of connectivity to achieve common development and prosperity. I am confident that as we work closely together, we will transcend geographical distance and embark on a path of win-win cooperation.”
The fact that more than 150 countries and international organizations have signed agreements on Belt and Road cooperation with China amply demonstrates the faith of the participating countries and multilateral organizations in the BRI initiative and its potential to give the world a new global economic order predicated on participation and shared economic prosperity. The much awaited re-awakening of the East has come forth in the shape of BRI.
However, the USA and some of its Western allies perceive it as a threat to the global economic order which promotes their vested interests. They are taking all possible measures to stop China from gaining the status of the number one economic power of the world with a greater political role on the world stage. The US trade war with China is one of the manifestations of the malice and grudge that they harbour against China but it will harm them more than it will the latter. Their economies have reached a point of saturation while China still has a vast potential to increase its economic prowess that will benefit the countries participating in the BRI initiative because it is not only a global factory for producing goods and services for exports but is also a global market for other countries with ever expanding horizons. China is vying for removal of trade barriers and is willing to lower tariffs as well as remove non-tariff barriers to meet the ever-growing material and cultural needs of its people by giving them more choices and benefits.
The USA has found a willing partner in India to do her bidding in the South Asian region and to check burgeoning Chinese influence in the region and beyond. Both the USA and India are trying to sabotage CPEC, a pivotal project of BRI which aims at regional connectivity and shared regional prosperity. The US Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary pf State for SouthAsian Affairs, Alice Wells, while speaking at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars last Friday tried to create misgivings about CPEC, advising Pakistan to ask tough questions from Beijing on debt, accountability, fairness and transparency, also suggesting that the burden of the Chinese loans in the end would sabotage the reform agenda of Imran Khan, which amply reflects the US bias. Pakistan’s Minister for Planning, Development and Special Initiatives, Asad Umar, reacting to her statement. rightly observed that the US apprehensions about CPEC were misplaced and based on wrong analysis, adding that concerns of others could not derail the CPEC.
However, notwithstanding the US hostility toward BRI and Indian opposition to CPEC, it is an irrefutable reality that China is destined to lead the world within the next two decades as its economic prowess and future potential amply suggest. Connectivity has become the buzzword of the 21st century which has turned the tide against those who are vying to protect their vested global interests and resist the change. China has become unstoppable. The Chinese Foreign Minister rightly observed “There is no way out for the zero-sum games of the USA. Only win-win cooperation between China and the USA is the right path.”
