China's Xi warns against decoupling at BRI forum

Chinese President Xi Jinping warned against decoupling from China as he opened the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) forum in Beijing on Wednesday, criticising Western efforts to reduce dependence on the Chinese economy.

Launched 10 years ago, Xi lauded his grand plan of building global infrastructure and energy networks to connect Asia with Africa and Europe through overland and maritime routes, saying that "blueprints turned into real projects".

Representatives from more than 130 countries, largely from the global south, attended the forum. The most prominent was Russian President Vladimir Putin.

"We stand against unilateral sanctions, economic coercion, decoupling and supply chain disruption," Xi told more than 1,000 delegates at the Great Hall of the People west of Tiananmen Square.

Xi pushed against Western efforts to reduce dependence on the Chinese economy, saying "our lives will not be better and our development will not be faster if we view the development of others as a threat and economic interdependence as a risk."

Reducing their dependence on supply chains with China has become a top priority among Western economies. 

Though BRI initially set out to connect China to Western Europe, senior EU figures were missing. The sole head of state present from the bloc was Hungary's populist President Viktor Orban.

Western scepticism of Xi's plans stems from suspicions about the way it would extend China's global influence, analysts say.

Putin praised the BRI and invited global investment in the Northern Sea route, which he said could deepen trade between East and West. Several European officials left the hall as Putin took to the stage.

Xi is making the Belt and Road smaller and greener, moving away from big-ticket projects like dams to hi-tech ones such as digital finance and e-commerce platforms.

Reuters