China's Unveiling: Beijing to Host Pivotal Global Summit under Xi Jinping's Visionary Leadership

Sign up for CNN's Meanwhile in China newsletter to stay informed on the country's rise and its global impact. Chinese leader Xi Jinping is hosting a prominent forum in Beijing this week to highlight China's significant contribution to economic development over the past decade and assert its growing aspirations as a global leader, potentially rivaling the United States.

The bid carries greater importance due to the escalating conflict in Israel and Gaza, which has the potential to destabilize the entire Middle East. The United States has traditionally been the dominant power in the region, but China has been actively increasing its influence and striving to contribute to peace efforts.

Over 140 countries, including nations from the Middle East and Global South, anticipate participating in the meticulously planned two-day event in Beijing. This marks China's first time hosting an international gathering of this magnitude since emerging from nearly three years of pandemic isolation in January.

Beijing has maintained a tight lid on information leading up to the event, which holds great significance for Xi as it commemorates a decade since the inception of his prominent foreign policy, the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). Regarded by officials as China's "most crucial diplomatic occasion" of the year, the dates were revealed only six days before the forum's commencement, and as of Monday morning, a day prior to the event, a list of attendees remained undisclosed.

It is likely that top leaders from major Western powers are not included in the guest list, and a Chinese state-run media outlet insinuated earlier this year that some of them were not invited. However, it is expected that Russia's Vladimir Putin, who is known for his ongoing aggression towards Ukraine, will be attending. The last time he visited Beijing was for the Winter Olympics opening ceremony in early 2022, and shortly after that, Russian tanks and troops crossed over Ukraine's border.

The forum will pave the way for the future of Xi's Belt and Road initiative. Over the past decade, this initiative has directed massive Chinese funding towards the development of ports, bridges, highways, and power plants, mainly in economically disadvantaged countries worldwide. This has greatly enhanced China's global influence.

However, Chinese officials and experts suggest that the forum will also serve as a platform to present a more comprehensive vision of how China intends to shape the world. In doing so, China aims to promote an alternative to the liberal world order advocated by democratic nations.

According to Craig Singleton, a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies think tank in Washington, Xi's message is straightforward. The current US-led order has failed to bring peace or prosperity to many developing nations. Therefore, a new order is needed to address today's issues and foresee tomorrow's challenges. Singleton also stated that Xi aims to demonstrate his ability to gather global powers in Beijing and achieve tangible results at summits. This includes establishing a distinct roadmap for discussions on reforming global governance.

An engineer walks through a China-built power station in Kenya.

Han Xu/Xinhua/Getty Images

Chinas way

Xi's bid arrives during a crucial period for Beijing. The city confronts severe economic obstacles domestically, including a worsening property crisis, elevated unemployment rates, and sluggish growth. Additionally, it perceives the United States' attempts to restrain and hinder its progress as a growing menace to its ascent.

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The Chinese leader is currently facing challenges within the upper ranks of the ruling Communist Party. In an unexpected move, Beijing replaced multiple senior officials, including the foreign minister, without providing any explanation during the summer. Additionally, the defense minister has been absent from public view since August, with speculation arising that he is being investigated.

Analysts point out that for Xi's strategy to counter perceived international threats, it is crucial to secure support for China's global leadership from a wide range of developing and emerging economies.

Next week in Beijing, Xi will be joined by nations such as Russia, who have increasingly aligned themselves with China. This is especially true due to Putin's aggressive invasion of Ukraine, which has caused the US and its allies to come closer together. Meanwhile, Moscow and Beijing have been working to strengthen alternative groups like BRICS, with the aim of making them explicitly anti-Western.

In a comprehensive policy document released last month before the forum, Beijing outlined its international vision in more than 13,000 words. It warned that the world is at risk of descending into confrontation and even war. China stated that it leads the way by promoting solidarity and cooperation among all countries, although it provided limited details on how it plans to achieve this.

On June 14, 2023, at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas and China's President Xi Jinping exchanged greetings. The moment was captured in a photograph, showing the two leaders shaking hands. The image depicts a significant event in their diplomatic relationship. [Photo by Jade GAO / POOL / AFP] [Photo by JADE GAO/POOL/AFP via Getty Images]

Jade Gao/Pool/AFP/Getty Images

China wants to be a peace broker in the Middle East. How has it responded to the Israel-Gaza war?

The pitch seems contradictory to the claims made by countries in China's region, accusing China of destabilizing the region with its aggressive actions, particularly in the disputed South China Sea, which Beijing denies.

At the forum, Chinese leaders are expected to use the recent conflict between Israel and the militant Islamist group Hamas as a way to illustrate how their ideas and proposed principles could contribute to resolving regional security challenges. Li Mingjiang, an associate professor of international relations at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, suggests that this is likely to be the case. Similar suggestions have been made by officials during the conflict in Ukraine.

However, the recent conflict also brings attention to the limitations of China's involvement in finding a resolution. Israel expressed its dissatisfaction with China's response to the conflict last week. Israel was particularly disappointed with China's failure to explicitly condemn Hamas terrorism in its statements, following a terror attack on Israeli territory.

According to Jonathan Fulton, a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council think tank in Abu Dhabi, most actors in the region do not view China as a viable solution to these issues since their presence in the Middle East is still in its early stages. While Beijing may promote its global ambitions this week, many delegations attending the event are primarily focused on strengthening their economic partnerships with the world's second-largest economy and understanding how China will allocate funds to the Belt and Road Initiative in the future.

Some Middle Eastern governments are intensely focused on exploring opportunities for development through cooperation with China and its Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), states Fulton. "There is a tremendous demand for such collaboration in the Middle East."

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, Chinese leader Xi Jinping, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov attended the BRICS Summit in Johannesburg in August.

Belt and Road ahead

Ten years on, the initiative itself has a mixed legacy.

The construction of essential infrastructure and development projects in impoverished nations worldwide has been greatly facilitated by this initiative, which Beijing claims amounts to "up to one trillion dollars of investment." Additionally, it has compelled other countries to intensify their own endeavors. In the recent past, the United States and its allies presented a competing program during the G20 summit in New Delhi.

But Belt and Road initiatives have also faced criticism for their perceived disregard for environmental and labor regulations as well as burdening certain nations with unsustainable levels of debt. These concerns have been further exacerbated by the evolving financial landscape following the global pandemic and the conflict in Ukraine.

Zimbabwe's Hwange Thermal Power Station expanded electricity generation capacity with a Chinese-funded expansion.

Zhang Baoping/Xinhua/Getty Images

China's investment in Africa's infrastructure has been substantial. However, there are concerns that it may now be reducing its financial support. According to a recent report by the Boston University Global Development Policy Center, Chinese development finance projects pose greater risks to biodiversity and Indigenous lands compared to projects funded by the World Bank.

Overseas development finance provided by China's two major development banks has shown a significant decline since reaching its peak in 2016, according to the data reported. Despite criticisms, China has defended its initiative and has indicated a future focus on environmentally friendly and thoroughly vetted projects.

During a recent press conference, Cong Liang, a senior official from China's National Development and Reform Commission, stated that the upcoming phase of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) will focus on developing projects that deliver significant advantages to partner countries. This "high-quality" approach may result in a reduction of funding for large-scale infrastructure projects, as experts have observed a decline in such investments in recent times.

Yun Sun, the director of the China Program at the Stimson Center think tank in Washington, stated that this also indicates the Chinese economy's slowdown. China lacks the same abundance of resources for the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) as it did in the initial decade. She added that Chinese decision makers have become more discerning and strategic in assessing the advantages of their financing, now prioritizing different areas.

CNNs Nectar Gan contributed reporting.