Nine Chinese characters have been chosen to describe the spirit of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) in the year 2024.

The characters are: 惠 (hui or benefit), 联 (lian or connection), 畅 (chang or smooth), 坚 (jian or firm), 文 (wen or culture), 稳 (wen or stability), 开 (kai or opening), 友 (you or friendship) and 成 (cheng or success).

What is their significance? Why were they chosen?

Pan Qingzhong, vice president of the China Public Relations Association, and Huang Tianshu, professor at Tsinghua University's Research and Conservation for Unearthed Texts, explain the importance of this set of characters and share their personal favorites.