Xiplomacy for global Cooperation, Peace and Shared Prosperity

Published: June 07,2024

By Gerald Mbanda 

Chinese president Xi Jinping’s European tour early May that took him to three countries- France, Serbia and Hungary,  as well as visits by several world leaders to Beijing this year, is manifestation of China’s commitment to strengthening diplomatic relations, fostering peaceful co-existence for global peace, as well as  promoting trade and investment.  China and France held the Sixth meeting of the China-France Business Council, where at the closing ceremony; President Xi Jinping delivered a speech titled, “Building on Past Achievements to Jointly Usher in a New Era in China-France Cooperation. Note that both France and Hungary are EU and NATO members which have defied US pressure to cease cooperation with China. 

China and France signed 18 cooperation agreements including but not limited to agriculture, green development aviation and people to people exchanges. The visit elevated China-France strategic partnership to a higher level, and the Chinese leader promised to open the Chinese market wider to create more opportunities for companies from France, Europe and beyond. There will be mutual benefit that will enhance shared prosperity consequently building a community with a shared future.

In Hungary, President Xi asked his counterpart Orban, to use the opportunity for the country’s rotating presidency of the EU which is scheduled to begin in July to “promote the stable and healthy development of China-EU relations.” The two countries also signed 18 cooperation agreements in various sectors. Xi promised that the two countries would “deepen economic, trade, investment, and financial cooperation” and advance “key projects,” including the Budapest-Belgrade railway.

On the evening of May 7, 2024, President Xi Jinping arrived in Serbian capital city –Belgrade, at the invitation of Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić. In his speech, the Chinese President mentioned that China and Serbia enjoy profound traditional friendship. The streets of Belgrade were decorated with national flags of China and Serbia and many places had the city lights brightly beaming with the “Chinese red.” It was a big and warm welcome to the Chinese leader.

China and Serbia established a strategic partnership in 2009 and in 2022, China became Serbia’s largest source of foreign direct investment. In 2023, bilateral trade reached $4.35 billion and before end of this year, both countries expect to sign a Free Trade Agreement, eliminating tariffs on about 90% of the tariff lines, covering about 95% of bilateral trade volume.

The European tour by President XI Jinping, did not go down well with the US administration as they viewed the visit as a sign of China’s growing influence in the EU region which they consider their preserved and strategic area of influence especially through NATO. The US has been for years plotting for decoupling between China and EU countries, going as far as influencing the countries to close their markets for Chinese made products.  

I read a CNN story of May 12, 2024, regarding the visit by the Chinese President to Europe and the whole story reflected anger and frustration by the US administration about the visit.  The story tried to make readers believe that there is nothing good in cooperating with China and also gave the impression that China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) is a failure, contrary to the reality.

Here are some of the ‘sour grapping” reporting statements by CNN on Xi visit to Europe: “Xi’s itinerary underscores his limitations within Europe, others say, including in Central and Eastern Europe where Beijing previously made extensive efforts to deepen connections and win goodwill, including through Xi’s flagship Belt and Road infrastructure drive. A Chinese mechanism to bolster relations with 16 Central and Eastern European nations has slowly lost support, in part because investments didn’t materialize at the expected scale, and also because China’s support for Russia soured relations in a region with a recent history of Soviet domination.” … “In Paris, Xi stressed that China was playing no role other than “contributing to reaching peace” in Ukraine, and denied there was industrial “overcapacity” in China flooding the European market.” …. “Xi’s visits to Serbia and Hungary helped him toward another goal – chipping away at a world order he sees as dominated by the United States.”

 Xi Jinping’s visit to European countries shows that China is open to work with all countries in the world regardless of regional groupings or political ideology. Countries all over the world need each other to have sincere mutual cooperation and to jointly tackle global challenges and share the benefits of trade and investment on a global scale without hindrance. Xi Jinping’s diplomatic offensive is based on mutual Cooperation, equality, joint collaboration to overcome global challenges, promoting global Peace and Shared Prosperity.

 Washington should desist from taking the world back to the cold war mentality and abandon a sense of entitlement believing that the world revolves around the United States. Washington needs work together with other countries as equal patterns for peaceful co-existence, and jointly promote global Peace and Shared Prosperity.

Gerald Mbanda is a Researcher and publisher on China and Africa.  

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