Sailing at Full Speed Along the Belt and Road 

International BRI Conference 2020 

July 8, 2020 

Huang Youyi 

It is a great honor to be part of today’s forum. The discussion of the BRI in post covid-19 is very important as recent developments have given the project new meaning and new dimensions. Of course, the pandemic has also raised questions about the BRI. 

One obvious question is what impact covid-19 will have on the BRI. Will it seriously affect its implementation? Will it prevent the projects from moving forward on time? Or will the world opinion for BRI be more complicated and unfavorable? Indeed some people in the West have suggested that the BRI is dead and dead forever. 

The reality is BRI is very much alive and full of vitality. Instead of falling apart, it is gaining new ground in embracing opportunities of developing public health cooperation and digital economy. 

The BRI is not a policy meant to benefit China alone but a project of great potentials of common development for all participants. The lifeline of BRI lies in its function of connecting countries to engage in developmental programs through collaboration. It aims at greater good rather than self-interest. The projects that have already been launched have created jobs, improved infrastructure facilities, bolstered regional economic growth, and brought benefit to the life of the people in the region. Meanwhile it has increased understanding between people in BR partner countries and fostered friendly feelings. 

Needless to say, covid-19 has posed serious challenges to the implementation of BRI projects as prevention and control measures have reduced the flow of personnel, impeded timely transport and delivery of materials and goods, and the slowdown in economic development worldwide has created constraint on funding. Sporadic new cases of covid-19 often put people on alert and disrupt their plan. Admittedly, it takes time for the return of fast and efficient movement of people and materials. 

All these challenges are not to be unsurmountable roadblocks for the progress of BRI projects. People have been working hard and been very creative in overcoming the difficulties posed by the disease. The most serious challenge however is the antagonistic attitude held by certain politicians in the West who have been equally creative in unpleasantly labelling the project with increasing tenacity. At a time of economic pressure, one of their pet theories, the theory of debt trap, has been promoted with growing energy. Some countries have been devising and pushing their projects to counter the BRI. Still worse are the overt and covert actions of creating disability in countries and regions involved in BRI. People must be vigilant against such attempts. 

Having said that, we must recognize that there are many things that have to be done in order to keep the momentum of the BRI. One technical challenge is the language barrier. From 1980 to 2020, for 40 years China was busy opening up and learning from other countries in virtually all areas. As a learning country we have trained thousands upon thousands of translators of major world languages such as English, German, Japanese, French so that we could make available in China what has been written and said in those languages. Now with the BRI unfolding, suddenly we find we need an increasingly number of people who can work between Chinese and languages spoken in much of Asia, Africa, Central and Eastern Europe, languages that generally are considered as languages of limited diffusion. 

Yes, an encouraging development is that more and more people in BRI partner countries are learning Chinese and they can fill some of the openings of translation jobs. This however cannot meet the present needs, particularly in translation occasions where native speakers of both languages are required to work together. I am involved in a large publishing program where we are trying to translate some of the Chinese classics for example The Book of Changes into languages used in Southeast Asian and Eastern European countries. When we translate materials in languages from these countries, Chinese translators can handle the job with confidence, but when in translating classic Chinese, we need native speakers from BRI partner countries to work together with Chinese people who know those languages. So we now face a dilemma that there are neither enough foreign translators well-versed in Chinese nor enough Chinese translators capable of speaking those languages. So there is an urgent job of training translators and that takes time. Of course there are many translation software tools such as google translate which can convert most languages. However, as of now they can only translate certain kinds of materials while writings with profound cultural implications still have to be done by men. 

I must add that people are working hard to solve the issue. What is gratifying is that more and more universities in China have opened courses in languages spoken in BRI partner countries. Beijing University of Foreign Studies where I received my undergraduate education leads the country in offering courses in over 100 languages. 

This is just one small technical example of the challenges we must deal with. To boost BRI, there are a lot of things that need to be taken care of. To facilitate the projects, we need to better understand and appreciate each other’s culture. We need to have increasing cultural exchanges to accompany, facilitate and pave the way for smooth BRI construction projects. This need is what precisely makes today’s forum significant. I hope to see more forums similar to this, involving increasing numbers of people and dealing with wide range of topics. In fact, virtual meetings, despite their inadequacies, do provide a convenient, economical and easy channel for exchange of ideas. Once again my gratitude to our Pakistani friends for initialing today’s event. 

Thank you.