Xi says to reject protectionism, open up Belt and Road
27 April, 2019
Chinese President Xi Jinping urged dozens of world leaders on Saturday (Apr 27) to reject protectionism and invited more countries to participate in his global infrastructure project after seeking to ease concerns surrounding the programme.
Addressing 37 leaders from Europe, Africa, Asia and Latin America, Xi made a new pitch for his cherished Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) as he kicked off the last day of a three-day forum.
The world's number two economy has been fighting a festering trade war with the United States for months, and Xi has long sought to take the mantle of the new world power open to multilateral cooperation and globalisation.
"We need to build an open world economy and reject protectionism," Xi told leaders including Russian President Vladimir Putin, Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte and Pakistan's Imran Khan seated around a large round table at the idyllic Yanqi Lake retreat at the edge of Beijing.
A draft communique for the forum seen by AFP similarly pledges to "reject protectionism" and "unilateralism" in an oblique swipe at President Donald Trump's "America first" presidency. US officials were not sent to the summit.
Xi's signature foreign policy aims to reinvent the ancient Silk Road to connect Asia to Europe and Africa through massive investments in maritime, road and rail projects - with hundreds of billions of dollars in financing from Chinese banks.
"We need to encourage the full participation of more countries and companies, thus expanding the pie of common interests," Xi said.
But critics say BRI is a plan to boost Beijing's global influence, riddled with opaque deals favouring Chinese companies and saddling nations with debt and environmental damage.
The United States, India and some European nations have looked at the project with suspicion.
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