Efficient economy through diplomacy

An official adjusts a Turkish national flag prior to the start of the G20 summit in Belek in the Mediterranean resort city of Antalya, Turkey, November 14, 2015. [Photo/Agencies]

The year 2016 will usher in the 13th Five-Year Plan (2016-20), whose core economic goal is to build a high quality and efficient economy. In the current global economic and political environment, which is very different from the past, China needs to use economic diplomacy and all the economic tools at its disposal to achieve the goals.

Some goodwill initiatives taken by China have been misunderstood by some countries, which are worried China would use the initiatives as tools to achieve its geopolitical goals. Economic diplomacy will help China remove the worries of the skeptics and present the real picture to the world.

China should also use economic diplomacy to create a free and fair economic environment. The United States is pushing its initiatives to maintain its global leadership, which help some countries to maintain a strategic balance. Beijing is wary of the Washington-led initiatives because some of them are openly aimed at containing China or curbing its rising influence.

The US-led Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement was signed by 12 countries last month. And the Barack Obama administration is pushing the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership to deepen the economic relations between European countries and the US. The two initiatives, which exclude China, are aimed at creating a diversionary effect for China.

To counter such moves, China needs to use well-designed and efficient economic diplomacy. This will also help China keep track of other countries' economic policies and predict their changes, devise a scientific road map to pursue its policy objectives, simultaneously employ domestic and foreign economic resources, and explain the aims of its economic policies.

The Silk Road Economic Belt and 21st Century Maritime Silk Road are part of a grand initiative. By implementing the initiative, China will earn development bonus, motivate neighboring countries to take more economic initiatives and deepen interdependence in the region. But considering the risks and difficulties associated with the Belt and Road Initiative, China should implement it carefully, for which it should push forward the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership negotiations with the help of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.