by Dragan Nikolić
Senior International Correspondent, the Co-Founder of the Foreign Policy Forum and Deputy Head of the Europe Future Centre, Croatia
There are more than 20,000 bridges in the wider Chongqing area, including 105 ultra-large ones across the Yangtze river and the Jialing river. No wonder that Chongqing is called The City of Bridges and selected many times by the experts as China’s bridge capital. We have seen some of them these days. And I must say, they look fantastic, both architecturally and aesthetically. Symbolically, those bridges are reflecting the rapid rise of China’s urbanization and it’s economic growth. Including the Belt and Road initiative, which has given an impetus to something that is often called Century of China.
To look more thoroughly at the Belt and Road initiative more than a decade after it was launched, for me as a European citizen and someone who has been dealing exclusively with international relations for twenty years and has been reporting on them as a senior international correspondent, it is very important to define how Europe perceives China nowadays and vice versa. And how ready are both sides if not to build some new bridges, then at least not to demolish the existing ones.
I come from Croatia, a member of the European Union and NATO. A country that is the youngest member of the EU and the only one in the Union to become a member of the eurozone and the Schengen area on the same day. Therefore, without any doubts one could say that Croatia is a country of the deepest European and North Atlantic integration, fully committed to the common foreign and security policy of these alliances. But Croatia is the country where the unique Pelješac Bridge was built, the first project financed by the EU money and built by the Chinese company China Road and Bridge Corporation. Just as this bridge will remain a symbol of Croatian-Chinese friendship, it could have been also a symbol of stronger cooperation between the EU and China. But a lot of things have changed since the winter 2018, when the Chinese company won the tender. Among other things, the outgoing EU’s High Representative for Foreign Policy and Security Mr. Borell five years ago for a first time has called China a systemic rival. From 2019 onwards the EU has regarded China as a partner, but tough economic competitor, as well. These days, after Chinese retaliatory action over Europe’s imposition of tariffs on electric vehicles made in China, i.e. anti-subsidy probe on dairy imports from the EU, Mr. Borell is saying that Europe doesn’t have any interest to get into a trade war with China, but maybe it’s unavoidable. These are the circumstances in which the Belt and Road initiative in Europe is increasingly losing the momentum.
In July last year, the European Union started applying the Foreign Subsidies Regulation, which allows it to protect the EU’s internal market. Mostly from the Chinese companies, which so far have applied for public tenders in which they have got many contracts in the EU due to low prices offered, a consequence of subsidies they receive in China. Today, Chinese companies are withdrawing from tenders in the EU due to the new regulation, China accuses the EU of protectionism and anti-competitive conduct. China Road and Bridge Corporation probably would not build today the Pelješac Bridge. But Chinese companies in Croatia are still getting contracts, such as the one to build a road access to Split, the second largest city in Croatia. This means that the bridges have not been destroyed completely, although there are fewer and fewer of them open for China on the territory of the EU.
More than a decade ago Chinese President Xi announced to the world the launch of the initiative that many call the New Silk Road. Since then, the global geopolitical and economic situation has changed enormously and deteriorated rapidly. The world today is living a new multipolar reality in which the countries of the Global East and the Global South have become active players instead of being silent observers. They have got rid or are getting rid of the colonial or neocolonial mentality and the feeling of inferiority. It is where the economic, demographic and technological future of the world is hidden today. Politics can be discussed, no doubts about that. Europeans who look at things realistically and in context needed are well aware of that situation. China as well. Therefore, everyone knows and understands everything, only sometimes capitals are pretending to be ignorant or naïve. The situation is much more complicated than during the years of the Cold War, by many mistakenly compared when it comes to the global situation nowadays and the challenges facing humanity.
Today, the world is faced with a nuclear threat, once unimaginable sentences have become a commonplace. There is a war going on in Ukraine and the Middle East, but the focus is shifting by every single day more and more dangerously to the Pacific. In that context, China’s responsibility is great. The greatest. That is the message that I can convey on behalf of many Europeans, including my fellow journalists. And I’m not saying it by heart. Unfortunately, Europe is witnessing a modern war and aggression on its eastern borders. We do know how the war looks like in 21st century (I personally reported the first year of the war from Ukraine). Ukraine is Europe. In terms of territory it is the largest European country, internationally recognized within its borders. Ukraine is a candidate country for the membership in the European Union. China is the only world power that at this moment could stop that war. I’m sure that such a move would bring a much-needed break in the increasingly frequent exchange of worrying messages between Europe and China. Just as China could help to facilitate the dialogue between Brussels and Moscow, the EU could help China in it’s dialogue with Washington. But that means that bridges should stop being torn down, and the brave ones should build a few new ones, as well. And that’s why I think it’s more than symbolic to send that message from here, from China’s bridge capital – stop the war in Ukraine. Then relations between Europe and China may also relax. Perhaps then there will be less talk about trade wars and systemic rivalry. At the end of the day, we have to talk and understand each other. For the sake of the next generations that are faced with some common challenges, whether they live in Zagreb, New York or Chongqing. Millennium challenges, but also those ones that have unexpectedly or expectedly emerged along the way, such as nuclear threats, artificial intelligence, disinformation and fake news, climate change.
In the age of hybrid warfare, when anyone can be a journalist and when private statuses on social networks have become unverified sources of information, especially in the West where I come from, the responsibility of us journalists is the greatest. We need to educate people, as well, as much as possible. To give them the context of the information. Without censorship or auto censorship, which is far from the viable solution regarding the regulation of the social media content. Sometimes it’s not an easy task, I know. In bringing closer our two worlds in a broader terms and our two mentalities, European and Chinese, we need to act professionally, using knowledge and eliminating prejudices that are fed by ignorance or political pressures. I am sure it’s completely different to be a journalist in Croatia or in China, but our professional postulates must be the same. Forums like this will then make sense.
During my last stay in China, I spent a lot of time in Beijing. I was also briefly in Shanghai, as well. After the past three days, I have to say, for me there are no doubts – Chongqing and the entire area that gravitates to it indeed is one of the four poles of the China’s development in the future. Perhaps the images of the container terminal in Chongqing reflect the most the economic strength of the inland China. But simultaneously with the modernization and globalization, Chinese cherish cultural heritage with the fascinating underwater museum project in Baiheliang and revitalize the rural way of life and preserve their identity. As someone who comes from one of the European tourism superpowers, I can say without pandering that the region has enormous tourist potential. Not only when it comes to the already widely known Three Natural Bridges. There is also the charming Jingzhu, which was declared one of the best tourist villages in the world by the World Tourism Organization three years ago. Of course, I won’t forget the magical night boat ride on the Yangtze river and the Jialing river, and beautifully lit bridges. Build bridges to Europe, before it’s too late, or at least don’t tear them down. Because without Europe, the Belt and Road initiative is not and can never be the New Silk Road.
*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.