[Post-COVID Global Hegemony Outlook] China Prioritizes People's Livelihood... Foreign Strategy is 'Health Silk Road'

Achieving a Xiaokang Society to Win Public Support
Seeking Medical Supplies Amid Criticism of "Disease Spread Along the Belt and Road"
Also Interpreted as China's Version of the Marshall Plan

[Asia Economy Beijing=Special Correspondent Sunmi Park] "This is not a gift or support on humanitarian grounds. From China's perspective, it is simply business."

Zden?k H?ib, Mayor of Prague, Czech Republic, recently criticized China's COVID-19 medical supplies support in an interview with Bloomberg. He implied that China's mask diplomacy itself is a 'token support' aimed at reshaping the world order.

Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, China has been at the center of global criticism for spreading the virus. Additionally, due to defective medical supplies provided by China, anti-China sentiment is rising in Europe. Because of this atmosphere, the dominant interpretation is that China will fall behind in the global hegemony competition and focus on internal recovery for the time being after COVID-19. Yang Gap-yong, a researcher at the National Security Strategy Institute, explained, "China currently does not have the capacity to manage the Belt and Road Initiative. Since resuming operations and economic normalization within China are the biggest issues now, it will be difficult for China to turn its attention outward for the time being."

The expectation that China will focus on internal recovery is closely related to people's livelihoods. China barely achieved an annual economic growth rate of 6% last year, but even without the COVID-19 crisis, growth in the 5% range was inevitable this year. In socialist China, solving the people's livelihood issues is the most important task. This is why President Xi Jinping emphasized at the Communist Party Standing Committee meeting on the 8th that "we must do our best to minimize the losses caused by COVID-19 and achieve the realization of a 'comprehensive Xiaokang society' and poverty eradication," despite the shock of COVID-19. Xiaokang means a comfortable and affluent life for all citizens. Building a 'Xiaokang society' and 'poverty eradication' are President Xi's top priorities. The frequent appearance of the term 'resumption of operations' in local media is also closely related to these tasks.

The ambitious Belt and Road Initiative (一帶一路, land and maritime Silk Road) project, promoted since the Xi Jinping administration, is inevitably taking a hit. The Czech Republic, which agreed to strengthen cooperation in the Belt and Road sector in March 2016, is a representative country that recently expressed distrust toward China. Other Belt and Road participant countries, such as Italy, also harbor strong resentment. The U.S. foreign affairs magazine Foreign Policy bluntly pointed out that Italy's worst-case COVID-19 outbreak situation is due to the Chinese government's Belt and Road policy.

Zhou Xiaojing, a researcher at the China Center for Globalization (CCG), a Chinese think tank, explained, "The global spread of COVID-19 shocks the world economy, which may cause difficulties in the development of the Belt and Road Initiative," adding, "As the global financial markets fluctuate due to COVID-19, the capital shortage among Belt and Road participant countries is intensifying."

China's diplomatic conditions are also unfavorable. It is difficult to even guess when the National People's Congress, China's largest political event scheduled for last month, will be held. The summit between China and the European Union (EU) leaders, planned to be held in Beijing, has been postponed, and President Xi's overseas tour schedule has been canceled or delayed one after another.

Instead, there is growing weight to the possibility that the concept of the Belt and Road Initiative will change due to COVID-19. In fact, China has begun integrating the health sector into the existing Belt and Road concept, which mainly focuses on infrastructure investment. Last month, President Xi mentioned the term 'Health Silk Road' during a phone call with Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte, saying, "I want to contribute to building the Health Silk Road together with Italy." Since then, Chinese media have highlighted China's support of COVID-19 medical supplies to various countries, promoting the 'Health Silk Road.'

A symbolic event demonstrating this occurred on the 21st of last month in Yiwu, China. A train loaded with 110,000 medical masks and 7.76 million protective suits was sent to Spain. The journey covers 13,000 km and takes 17 days. It is the world's longest China-Europe Silk Road train. Using a train instead of a plane in a situation where patients' lives are at stake suggests that China has not given up its global status through the Belt and Road Initiative.

In the United States, medical supplies support to Europe is compared to a 'Chinese version of the Marshall Plan.' The U.S. media The Diplomat mentioned China's mask diplomacy, adding, "In 1948, the U.S. poured $15 billion into Western Europe in response to Russia." Through this precedent, it hinted that China could take the forefront on the world stage.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.