Panelists discuss the opportunities and challenges of the Belt and Road Initiative on the sidelines of the Belt and Road Cooperation and Development forum held in Beijing on December 7-8 (COURTESY OF CHINA INTERNATIONAL COUNCIL FOR THE PROMOTION OF MULTINATIONAL CORPORATIONS)

As the United States and other developed countries grapple with rising trade protectionism and nationalism, can China assume the mantle of leadership in terms of globalization?

The Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st-Century Maritime Silk Road (the Belt and Road Initiative), a strategy conceived by Chinese President Xi Jinping in 2013 to boost infrastructure construction, trade and investment between Asia and Eurasia, links more than 70 countries in Asia, Africa, the Middle East and Europe to revive the ancient Silk Road. China's trade with the countries that have joined the initiative had already surpassed $1 trillion in 2015, according to the Ministry of Commerce.

But unlike the original Silk Road, this new project promotes globalization with Chinese features by reorganizing value chains and the rules governing the global economy.

According to the white paper Vision and Actions on Jointly Building Silk Road Economic Belt and 21st-Century Maritime Silk Road released in 2015, the initiative follows the concepts of a multipolar world, economic globalization, and cultural diversity. 'It is aimed at promoting orderly and free flow of economic factors, highly efficient allocation of resources and deep integration of markets... and jointly creating an open, inclusive and balanced regional economic cooperation architecture that benefits all,' the document states.

(Source:Beijing Review)