China-Europe partnership benefits all
Doubts over China's initiative misplaced
Why is the 16+1 a new issue in the China-European Union relations?
In spite of China's efforts to reassure the EU that the Belt and Road Initiative is not against European unity but instead offers new opportunities for all the participants, the initiative is still misunderstood and mistrusted. Even recent successes such as the fourth China-CEE Investment and Trade Expo, which saw the participation of 240 companies from 15 CEE (including 36 from Serbia, 30 from Poland and 28 from Romania), and the completion of the 16+1 Economic and Trade Demonstration Zone (both in Ningbo) could not change this attitude.
Some critics also see the Belt and Road Initiative as a "debt trap" and a way to bring less-developed partners in the position of "surrendering their sovereignty" to China.
We cannot accept such critiques if we are aware of these facts: we don't live in colonial times, and even though China used the "chaogong system" during the imperial period, it never exploited its neighbors nor did it act as the aggressor.
China is not imposing its rules but trying to find the best suited cooperation alternatives according to its own and its trade partners' development priorities.
Another feature of the present world order is related to the fact that in this stage of globalization, developed countries often invoke national interests and national security as arguments for their protectionist actions, because globalization seems to generate more positive effects for the emerging economies than for the developed ones.
The measures taken or announced by the United States and the EU against China in 2018 to counter the latter's "misappropriation" of intellectual property through "joint venture requirements and other policies that force technology transfers" represent new breaking points in both US-China and EU-China relations.
China favors flexible institutional structures, following the experimental "Asian way", and it believes they can bring benefits for all the participants, as all of them are invited to contribute to the agenda according to their priorities.
As part of the Belt and Road Initiative, the 16+1 cooperation platform is regarded by China as a framework that brings complementarities and synergies to the EU's initiatives, and therefore contributes to the "balanced development throughout Europe". If any countries still have doubts, they should discuss it directly with China.
