by Nelson Del Castillo Martorell
General Secretary of Federación Latinoamericana de Periodistas, Director of Inter News Service, the United States
Every day it becomes more evident that the future of Humanity is built from the People’s Republic of China based on the impulse that President Xi Jinping, general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party, has given to the Belt and Road initiative, which, in addition of the countries, involves journalists from various nations of the world, where Latin America plays a fundamental role.
Now that we move towards a new meeting of journalists, it is important to highlight that the Belt and Road Initiative has created around 420,000 jobs in the participating nations, which has concomitantly helped lift nearly 40 million out of poverty of people in the last decade, according to data provided by China in March 2024.
This impulse was perceived when in mid-October 2023, Beijing, the capital of the People’s Republic of China, held an intense day with the presence of over a hundred foreign heads of state and government as part of the Third Belt and Road Forum. Route for International Cooperation, an initiative promoted a decade ago by President Xi Jinping aimed at forging the future of Humanity from a perspective of economic and cultural collaboration from a multilateral vision.
Journalists from all over the world had the opportunity, together with observing the transformation that the Asian nation and its capital Beijing has experienced, this time stripped of atmospheric pollution given the intense reforestation with trees and flowers that make it unique, by strengthening the policy of President Xi Jinping, 71, who has been at the head of the People’s Republic of China since 2013.
In his speech “Building an open, inclusive, interconnected world with common development for all”, the Chinese leader highlighted that this year marks the tenth anniversary of the Belt and Road Initiative that he proposed, inspired by the ancient Road of La Seda and focusing on improving connectivity.
“This has as its original aspiration to promote connectivity in politics, infrastructure, trade, financing and people to people with all countries, so that new impulses can be injected into the world economy, create new opportunities for global development and establish a new platform for international economic cooperation,” the president stressed in his speech.
The development of communications, particularly through railway and ship routes that from the Eurasian continent to Africa and Latin America and the Caribbean, involving more than 150 countries, makes Belt and Road cooperation unprecedented in the most diverse countries. aspects, including the way in which economic, cultural and political relations are managed, which currently links more than 30 international organizations.
Various entities, such as the Latin American Federation of Journalists (FELAP), chaired by Argentine journalist Juan Carlos Camaño and representing some 80,000 communications workers, have signed cooperation and collaboration agreements with All-China Journalists Association, aiming at strengthening ties between nations.
As Xi Jinping mentioned, in addition to signing documents for the joint construction of the Belt and Road, two forums of this international initiative have been held, and more than 20 specialized multilateral cooperation platforms have been created within the framework of this idea.
“Throughout these ten years, we have strived to build the global connectivity network made up of economic corridors, international transport routes and information highways, as well as railways, highways, airports, ports, oil pipelines and electricity networks. Covering land, sea, sky and the Internet, this network has effectively fostered the flow of goods, funds, technologies and people between various countries, thus allowing the ancient ancient Silk Road to brim with renewed dynamism in the new was,” Xi explained.
With a population that exceeds 1.4 billion inhabitants, the national government – which promotes socialism with Chinese characteristics under the leadership of the Communist Party of China – has managed to combat poverty at astonishing levels, which is why it is considered to be from the People’s Republic of China—through its close collaboration with nations plundered by colonial powers and oppressed by imperialist politics—where the future of Humanity is forged.
Xi referred that after the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Belt and Road became a path for life and health, as China has provided more than ten billion mascarillas and 2.3 billion doses of vaccines to various countries, in addition to having cooperated with more than 20 nations for the joint production of vaccines, and has made special contributions to the anti-epidemic fight of the cooperation partners of the Belt and West Bank. Route. Likewise, China has also had the valuable support of more than 70 countries at its most critical moment of the pandemic.
After the pandemic, in 2020 with a rigid health policy, it also managed to enable over 850 million citizens to overcome the extreme poverty that had burdened its economy since 1981, when it was 90 percent and which, according to Chinese media, was by less than one percent.
Becoming the second largest global economy since 2010, the People’s Republic of China, under the leadership of Xi Jinping, has become the largest trading partner of more than 140 countries and regions in the world, and the main source of investment for a growing number of nations in Asia, Africa and Latin America, along with the development of modern railway networks that will even interconnect with Spain.
“Both Chinese investments abroad and foreign investments in China are signs of friendship and cooperation, and symbols of trust and hope,” Xi said, maintaining that “we have learned that win-win cooperation is the right path.” towards success in the implementation of great initiatives that benefit everyone.”
Xi, also General Secretary of the Communist Party of China, has stated that “as long as all countries have the will to cooperate and take coordinated actions, we can turn the deep abyss into a well- paved road; a landlocked country, into one connected by land; and backward areas in development, in advanced places of prosperity.”
In this sense, he observed that those countries with faster economic development must lend a hand to their partners who have not yet caught up. “We must treat each other as friends and partners, respect and support each other, and help each other succeed. As the saying goes, when one gives roses to others, the fragrance remains in one’s own hand. In other words, helping others is also helping yourself. Whereas if you take the development of others as a threat and economic interdependence as a risk, you will not improve your own life or have faster development,” he stated.
For the Chinese leader, “Belt and Road cooperation has moved from the stage of drawing the outline to completing the details, and the plans have become real projects. “A large number of emblematic projects and ‘small but agile’ programs beneficial to the people have been completed.”
Since its proclamation in 1949 by the communist leader Mao Zedong, the People’s Republic of China—then in semi-feudal conditions—has advanced in the last 75 years to an unthinkable level, distant even from the crises that led to the collapse of the former socialist camp of Eastern Europe. and in 1991 to the Soviet Union.
After the usurpation of its identity by the rebellious province of Taiwan, with the complicity of the imperial powers, the People’s Republic of China has managed to establish in recent years, in addition to Africa, full relations with the majority of the nations of Latin America and the Caribbean, which enhances its presence on the American continent.
The Belt and Road Journalists Forum 2024, which will soon be held in Chongqing, promoted by the China National Journalists Association (ACJA), precisely marks the path of “expanding opportunities and sharing a better future.
*The views and opinions expressed in the articles are solely those of the individual authors and do not reflect the position of the Secretariat of the Belt and Road Journalist Network.