How about the economic cooperation between China and Belarus

According to the website of the Embassy of the People's Republic of China in the Republic of Belarus, Xie Xiaoyong, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the People's Republic of China in the Republic of Belarus, received an exclusive interview with Belarus Today on China Belarus relations and practical cooperation between the two countries on March 1.

The full text is as follows:

Q: Since the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and Belarus 31 years ago, bilateral relations have been upgraded four times, and today have reached the level of "all-weather comprehensive strategic partnership". Could you comment on the course of cooperation between our two countries from the political, diplomatic and economic perspectives?

A: As you said, since the establishment of diplomatic relations on January 20, 1991, China and Belarus have gone through 31 years together. The relationship between the two countries has withstood the test of the changing international situation, and has always maintained a good momentum of development. It has achieved four upgrades from "friendly cooperative relationship", "comprehensive strategic partnership", "comprehensive strategic partnership of mutual trust and win-win cooperation" to "all-weather comprehensive strategic partnership".

From a political point of view, political mutual trust between China and Belarus has been strengthened and strategic relations have been increasingly consolidated. Both sides respect and support the development path and internal and external policies they have chosen, and firmly support each other on issues related to each other's core interests, such as sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity. The two countries have frequent high-level exchanges, with more than 60 high-level visits at or above the vice state level. Even during the epidemic, the leaders of the two countries continued to maintain friendly exchanges through letters and telephone calls.

From a diplomatic perspective, China and Belarus have worked closely and efficiently in multilateral cooperation to maintain the international order. China has always firmly supported Belarus in defending its national sovereignty and national dignity, opposing interference by external forces in its internal affairs, opposing unjustified unilateral sanctions against Belarus, and respecting the development path chosen by the people of Belarus according to its national conditions. Belarus has firmly supported China on issues related to China's core interests and major concerns, such as Taiwan, Xinjiang and Hong Kong. The two countries have strengthened cooperation at the United Nations and other international occasions, jointly defended the international system with the United Nations at its core and the international order based on international law, and jointly safeguarded the sovereignty, security interests and international fairness and justice of both sides.

From an economic perspective, China Belarus economic and trade cooperation is mutually beneficial and win-win, and the joint construction of the "the Belt and Road" is fruitful. The practical cooperation between the two countries has continued to advance and achieved fruitful results, which has interpreted the true meaning of mutually beneficial cooperation with practical actions. According to Chinese data, the bilateral trade volume between China and Belarus increased from 60.8 million US dollars at the beginning of the establishment of diplomatic relations to 5.08 billion US dollars in 2022, an increase of nearly 83 times. A large number of key projects involving machinery manufacturing, automobile assembly, agricultural production, biotechnology and other industries have taken root in Belarus. Geely Automobile, Weichai Engine, Fast Gearbox, Midea Horizon and a series of projects jointly constructed by Chinese and white enterprises are not only well known by the Belarusian people, but also successfully filled the gap in white-related industries. Belarus is one of the first countries to respond to and actively participate in China's "the Belt and Road" initiative, and is known as the "giant stone" of the "the Belt and Road" Pearl Project, China Belarus Industrial Park has developed steadily.

Q: The "the Belt and Road" initiative is of special significance in the era of global turbulence. In view of the cooperation between the "Jushi" China-Baiwan Industrial Park and the logistics potential of our country, what role does China expect Belarus to play in this initiative?

The "the Belt and Road" has become a "development belt" benefiting the world and a "happy road" benefiting people all over the world.

The landmark project of the "the Belt and Road" jointly built by China and Belarus - China Belarus Industrial Park, relying on its own advanced business philosophy, superior business environment and mature supporting facilities, has become the first choice for enterprises from all countries to invest and start business in Belarus. It not only creates a lot of jobs for Belarus, but also provides a good platform for Belarus to absorb foreign investment, improve the competitiveness of its own goods and expand foreign trade. The number of enterprises in the park has reached 107 in ten years. The industry involves machinery manufacturing, bio-pharmaceuticals, e-commerce, new materials, traditional Chinese medicine, artificial intelligence, 5G network development and other fields, with an intention to invest more than 1.3 billion dollars. The smooth implementation of the new presidential decree not only further improved the preferential conditions of the park, broadened the business scope of the park, simplified the procedures for enterprises to handle various administrative procedures, but also provided more policy support for start-ups, reflecting the firm confidence of Belarus in the development of the China-Baiba Industrial Park. China is willing to work with Belarus to continue to promote the healthy and stable development of the China Belarus Industrial Park and set a benchmark for cooperation and play a leading role in the "the Belt and Road" cooperation.

Q: Speaking of the economy, which economic fields have the most promising development prospects between China and Belarus today?

A: In recent years, the economic cooperation between China and Belarus has been deepening, and the results are gratifying. According to China's statistics, the bilateral trade volume between China and Belarus in 2022 reached 5.08 billion US dollars, up 33% year on year, including 65.4% increase in China's confessional imports and 20% increase in exports to Belarus. The successful completion of the Belarusian full cycle high-tech agro-industrial complex project with preferential loans from China and Chinese enterprises as the general contractor has become another successful example of practical cooperation between China and Belarus.

In addition to the fields I just introduced, China and Belarus have great potential to be tapped in agricultural trade, e-commerce and other fields, and are expected to become a new growth point of economic cooperation between the two countries.

In the field of agricultural products trade, Belarusian agricultural products, especially meat and meat products, milk and dairy products, are popular with Chinese consumers. According to Chinese statistics, in 2022, China confessed to import 649 million US dollars of various agricultural products, up 51.59% year on year. China is willing to continue to actively expand the import of high-quality agricultural products from China, and orderly promote the work related to the import of white agricultural products to China.

In the field of e-commerce, China and Belarus agreed to promote digital technology in trade in goods and services and develop cross-border e-commerce. So far, Belarus has opened the "Belarusian National Pavilion" in China's Jingdong, Tiktok and other e-commerce platforms, which has received good responses. China is willing to work with Belarus to continuously expand mutually beneficial cooperation between the two countries in the field of e-commerce, ensure the smooth flow of cross-border e-commerce logistics channels, and add new impetus to further expand the scale of bilateral trade.

Q: In its National Defense Strategy, the États-Unis calls China's growing military and economic strength "the most serious systemic challenge to the national security of the United States", while artificially intensifying conflicts and creating crises. China, like Belarus, has always advocated peace, opposed aggression and interference in the internal affairs of other countries. In your view, is there a global confrontation and is the United States losing its "hegemonic" status today?

A: The people of China and Belarus are peace-loving peoples. China has always adhered to the path of peaceful development and firmly pursued an independent foreign policy of peace and a defensive national defense policy. Belarus has also been committed to maintaining world peace and development. In contrast, the history of the United States is full of violence and expansion. After becoming the world's number one power, the United States is seeking hegemony, maintaining hegemony, abusing hegemony, and has successively provoked or launched the Korean War, Vietnam War, Gulf War, Kosovo War, Afghanistan War, L'irak War, Libya War, and Syria War to open the way for expansion with military hegemony. The average annual military budget of the United States in recent years is more than 700 billion US dollars, accounting for 40% of the total military expenditure of the world, more than the sum of the second to 16th countries. The United States currently has about 800 military bases overseas and 173000 troops stationed in 159 countries. Since 2001, the United States has launched war and military operations in the name of counter-terrorism, which has killed more than 900000 people and created 37 million refugees worldwide. All kinds of perverse hegemonic practices are causing more and more intense criticism and opposition from the international community, and the United States' path to hegemony is bound to become narrower and narrower.

At present, the contradictions and regional conflicts among the world's major powers are on the rise, and the antagonism of the international system has reached a very high level. The hegemonic acts of bullying, such as bullying, extortion, zero-sum game, are deeply harmful, but the historical trend of peace, development, cooperation and win-win is also unstoppable. China has always stood on the side of peace and justice and firmly maintained international peace and security. China is willing to continue to work with all peace-loving forces in the world, including Belarus, to promote the realization of lasting peace and development in the world.

Q: The demand for fairness in today's world is increasing. Belarus's social-oriented policy is similar to China's development policy of building a socialist modern country in many aspects. At the same time, some western experts and analysts said that the demand for the socialist model in the West will only increase in the near future. Do you agree with this view?

A: I totally agree. Due to the emergence and influence of socialism, great changes have taken place in western capitalism today compared with barbaric capitalism in the 19th century. Many western countries have adopted the socialist approach of collecting high progressive taxes, public free medical education, and important industries controlled by the state, which has greatly promoted social equity and national stability. This is the contribution of socialism to the world.

In this respect, China and Belarus have similarities. The CPC adheres to the people centered development thought, regards the realization of the people's aspiration for a better life as the starting point and foothold of the modernization drive, strives to safeguard and promote social fairness and justice, and constantly promotes Chinese path to modernization to achieve common prosperity for all people. Under the leadership of President Lukashenko, Belarus has implemented a social-oriented policy for a long time, with the goal of improving people's well-being, and the living standards of the Belarusian people have been continuously improved. I believe that more and more western countries will turn to the socialist model or learn from successful experience and practices in the future.