It was supposed to be China’s day of celebrating massive infrastructure spending for the sake of spending as Xi Jinping pledged $124 billion on Sunday for his new Silk Road plan to forge « a path of peace, inclusiveness and free trade » while calling for the…
It was supposed to be China’s day of celebrating massive infrastructure spending for the sake of spending (read ghost towns, only now outside China’s borders) as Xi Jinping pledged $124 billion on Sunday for his new Silk Road plan to forge « a path of peace, inclusiveness and free trade » while calling for the abandonment of old models based on rivalry and diplomatic power games. However, it did not go quite as smoothly as expected.
A celebration years in the making, Xi hosted dozens of world leaders – including a piano-playing Vladimir Putin – on Sunday for the country’s biggest diplomatic showcase of the year, touting his vision of a new « Silk Road » that opens trade routes across the globe. Xi used the summit to » bolster China’s global leadership ambitions » as U. S. President Donald Trump promotes « America First » and questions existing global free trade deals.
After scoring 2 hat tricks in Sochi, Putin returns to Moscow where he places 1st in annual Van Cliburn competition pic.twitter.com/FQMs0PZ1W0
— Don Draper (@DonDraperClone) May 14,2017
In total, leaders from 29 countries attended the forum, including some of China’s close allies and partners such as Russian President Vladimir Putin, Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen, Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev, Turkey’s quasi-dictator Tayyip Erdogan, as well as the heads of the United Nations, and the CapEx leeches from the IMF and World Bank.
« We should build an open platform of cooperation and uphold and grow an open world economy, » China’s president Xi told the opening of the two-day gathering in Beijing.
Over the past four years, China touted what it formally calls the « One Belt, One Road » initiative as a new way to boost globalization and global development, aiming to expand links between Asia, Africa, Europe and beyond underpinned by billions of dollars in infrastructure investment. In other words, another way to boost China’s GDP only this time diluted among more Asian nations, who just have to take China’s word that it will ultimately be for their benefit.
Xi also said the world must create conditions that promote open development and encourage the building of systems of « fair, reasonable and transparent global trade and investment rules ».
