Chinese expert on BRI: Is it better to build roads or to build walls?

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Emphasizing cooperative projects for mutual development, the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) is Chinese President Xi Jinping's foremost strategy for his country to engage with the rest of the world, especially with developing countries.

It is Xi's global vision to build "a community with a shared future", and it also aims to construct much-needed infrastructure, while at the same time diversifying and expanding the Chinese economy.

Advocates of the BRI have said that in order to realise Xi's vision of building such a community where mutual connectivity sits at the core, it must have five major goals: policy coordination, facilities connectivity, unimpeded trade, financial integration, and people-to-people bonds.

Chinese President Xi Jinping visits the United Arab Emirates the midpoint of the Belt and Road, July 10, 2018. / Xinhua Photo

The idea behind the BRI is that no country is isolated from others and that history tells us that countries cannot make progress unless they choose to cooperate. Therefore the the policy makers behind the BRI stress it must aim at being mutually benefits between various countries and China.

Speaking to CGTN, Professor Zhao Lei from the Institute for International Strategic Studies of the Central Party School of the Communist Party of China thinks connectivity exemplifies the Belt and Road Initiative.

Simply speaking, connectivity is the essence of the initiative, Zhao said, adding that the BRI has developed six major economic corridors, 56 industrial parks, and set up more than 3,000 projects ever since its launch in 2013.

But the initiative is not limited to the sphere of physical connectivity. More importantly, it intends to bring people from different countries together, said Zhao.

It's said that one hand alone can't clap. Connectivity is of course not just the need of one side; it is also the needs of other countries. So the best cooperation happens when two parties both agree, Zhao noted.

However, in recent years, we've witnessed some Westerners expressing anti-connectivity sentiments. Just take Donald Trump, the President of the United States, as an example, he has been withdrawing the US from global activities, the professor said.

Zhao believes that China's attitude toward globalization is different from that of the West.

"What China is doing is connecting road and road countries through corridors, strengthening connectivity."

Zhao also discussed three deficits in world affairs: peace, development, and governance. To reduce these deficits, it is never wise for countries to block themselves from the outside world or to build walls between countries. And it is always said that building roads requires more wisdom than building walls, and it is definitely better for global governance.