During his visit to Rwanda not long ago, Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said in an interview with local media that during the Cold War, major powers competed in Southeast Asia and other regions.
The Indo-Pacific Economic Framework (IPEF) advocated by the United States and the global development initiative initiated by China are both competing proposals in the region.
So long as these initiatives are not mutually exclusive, Singapore is involved on both sides.
It seems that Lee Hsien Loong is talking about Singapore's neutral choice in the process of Sino-US competition.
In effect he implicitly recognizes a global development initiative that competes with the Indo-Pacific economic framework.
Such understanding is one-sided.
The Indo-Pacific Economic Framework serves the Indo-Pacific strategy of the United States. It is the economic concept proposed by the Joe Biden administration in the Indo-Pacific region, and the TPP (“TPP”) proposed by the Barack Obama administration after proposing the Asia-Pacific rebalancing strategy. The idea of the Trans-Pacific Economic Cooperation Agreement) is the same.
China's proposed global development initiative and the U.S. Indo-Pacific economic framework are not comparable in terms of purpose or scope.
Chinese President Xi Jinping proposed a global development initiative at the United Nations General Assembly in September 2021.
From June 22 to 24, Chinese President Xi Jinping once again explained the global development initiative in the opening speech of the BRICS Business Forum, the Global Development High-level Dialogue and other BRICS summits.
Especially at the high-level dialogue on global development, Xi Jinping also announced important measures for China to implement the global development initiative, including the establishment of the "Global Development and South-South Cooperation Fund", increased investment in the China-United Nations Peace and Development Fund, and the establishment of the Global Development Fund. Promote the center, publish the "Global Development Report", establish a global development knowledge network, etc.
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said that the holding of the high-level dialogue on global development marks the beginning of the global development initiative to take root.
BRICS: The picture shows Chinese President Xi Jinping delivering a speech at the BRICS Business Forum on June 22, 2022.
(AP)
Initiated by the United Nations, it shows that China's initiative is a global cooperation plan.
The next important step was announced at the Global Development High-level Dialogue, which mainly involves developing and emerging countries on all continents, suggesting that the initiative is a plan that favors cooperation between developing and emerging countries.
Less than a week after the series of BRICS summits ended, Yang Jiechi, member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and director of the Office of the Central Foreign Affairs Commission, visited Pakistan, the United Arab Emirates, Zimbabwe, Mozambique and other Asian and African countries from June 29 to July 4, wherever he went. They all focused on promoting global development initiatives and expressed their willingness to jointly promote the implementation of the initiative.
It can be seen that China's eyes have not stopped at the Indo-Pacific.
China's global development initiative was not originally intended to deal with the Indo-Pacific economic framework.
China, which is striving for development, hopes to reshape the development-focused international environment and the international general trend of peaceful development.
As long as the general trend of development remains unwavering and stagnant, China's rise will be guaranteed and it will be able to remain invincible in the fierce competition.
Under the constant pressure and containment of the United States, it is difficult to say that Beijing's initiative has no intention to deal with the United States.
And even if there is an intention to deal with the United States, it is not specifically aimed at the Indo-Pacific economic framework.
What China wants to confront and get rid of is the Cold War confrontation atmosphere created by the United States.
China hopes to use development to unite more developing and emerging countries and enhance its ability to deal with US suppression.
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