With a change in presidency in the US, there has also been an attitudinal shift in Europe

By: Azhar Azam

In a fresh coup to US global integrity, role and reliability – a new study by European Council of Foreign Relations (ECFR) found after Trump’s chaotic and importunate four-year term, Europeans were not willing to support Washington in potential international disputes and just 10% saw America as a “reliable” security partner in the event of a crisis.

A survey of 15,000 people across 11 European countries including France, Germany, Great Britain, Italy, Spain and others further discovered more than 60% Europeans thought America’s political system was “broken” and it is unlikely the US would regain its world leadership or Joe Biden will be able to halt his country’s decline on the world stage.

Roughly half of the respondents felt their governments should remain neutral in any conflict between China and the US whereas a staggering number of people up to 79% in France, Italy, Portugal and Spain said China will unseat America to become the world's leading superpower within the next decade.

The poll findings indicate the Europeans are wary of the US cavalier and high-handed attitude toward them and foresee its role shrinking in global politics. It also describes a strong displeasure on the US strategy toward China, forcing the regional states to decouple from and contain China in fear of losing its influence.

Shockingly for the US, the publics looked deeply unattractive and unconcerned with the Washington-pushed perspective of a new cold war with China. The dramatic shift in Europeans’ threat perception showed they were quickly understanding American mentality and responding to the adversarial nature of its warlike mindset.

Unlike the cold war era when Berlin felt threatened by invasion and wedded to the Atlantic alliance, study noted the manufacturing heavyweight seems to be caught up with French notion for European defense integration. Germany’s belief to defend itself, along with half of Germans don’t see American military power as an existential guarantee for them, the US bubble threat of foreign military intervention has been blasted.

People in Europe would now seek the European leaders to adopt an independent China policy over scathing differences with the US. By implying Europe’s transatlantic policy in the coming years should be driven by growing economic ties with China, they have called upon the governments to weigh up their economic interests in dealing with the emerging global leader.

The results echoed last year’s ECFR survey outcomes when most of the European Union (EU) citizens said they can no longer rely on the US security guarantee and the bloc should remain neutral in conflicts between the US and China or Russia, wanting coalition chart its own course and establish itself as a cohesive geopolitical actor.

Washington has been mounting pressure on Europe to form a united front against Beijing. But in a big surprise, the latest poll showed the Europeans were not keen in getting back to a bipolar world, in which the West would face off against China and its allies as it once did against the Soviet Union.

Most EU nations considered Germany as a more important country to have a good relationship with than the US and only 23% said the country should take the US side against Russia. Berlin economic significance, cooperation in building the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline with Moscow, Russians’ positive views about Europe and vice versa – together with Germany’s bilateral trade of 206 billion euros in 2019 with China, making latter the “most important trading partner” for fourth consecutive year and China-EU recent investment deal – could set the tone for a lot louder China-Russia-EU relations in the next few years.

In December 2019, the US Senate approved sanctions on companies and governments working on the North Stream 2 pipeline for supplying Russian gas to Germany. The outright breach of Germany sovereignty pressed German Foreign Minister Heiko Mass to warn America not to meddle in European energy policy and evade “the move to influence autonomous decisions that are made in Europe.”

The work on the $11 billion project Germany last week wanted to resume immediately, at the moment, faces suspension or even cancellation as the new US embargos bite the Russian pipe-laying ship Fortuna and its owner. While Berlin took the curbs with “regret,” Washington’s ulterior motive to sell American liquid natural gas and prevent Moscow from wearing off the US domination across European peninsula can impair Biden’s desire to ameliorate transatlantic relationship and may expose deeper cracks in alliance.

It is still unclear how Biden, who opposed the project as American Vice President, would tackle German gripes. But if the new US President keeps Trump’s policy afloat, it would fuel more resentments in Europe particularly Germany that is looking to phase out the use of coal and nuclear energy for low-cost Russian gas through Baltic Sea to fight climate change, coincidentally another of Biden’s key promises.

Under Trump, the White House has eroded all global mellifluous efforts to jointly rout the virus and mitigate its spillover effects on the economy. Biden has committed to restore the US international leadership role, credibility and influence by strengthening alliances with the European and other partners and reversing the Trumpian unilateralism.

But unless the Biden administration steps back from shaping Europe’s economic and trade policies about China and Russia for the US individualistic interests and rolls out an inclusive vision of cooperation and globalization to embrace the whole world, not just Europe or US allies – the revival of America as a global leader and credible partner would be strewn with pitfalls.

*This is one of my opinion pieces (unedited) that first appeared in "News24":

https://www.news24.com/news24/columnists/guestcolumn/opinion-with-a-change-in-presidency-in-the-us-there-has-also-been-an-attitudinal-shift-in-europe-20210125

CPEC progress shows BRI viability

By: Azhar Azam

China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) is the bellwether of Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) to evaluate the viability of Chinese global infrastructure development strategy prior to its kick-off. The initial prototype of Xi Jinping’s grand vision, now valued at $62 billion, is one of the largest unilateral foreign direct investments (FDI) from one nation to another, which gives an idea of the enormous size of the transcontinental program.

After closing the critical energy and infrastructure gaps in Pakistan, CPEC is entering into the kairotic moment of the second phase that would build the bedrock of the country's economic rejuvenation through increased exports, job creation, industrialization, technology transfer, agriculture upgradation and construction of special economic zones.

Since its launch, India has seen the broadening China-Pakistan economic and strategic ties with skepticism. The project also continues to be a target of a systematic disinformation campaign as some media reports claimed Beijing was slowly walking away from its financial promises or killing of coal miners across CPEC key route in Balochistan had threatened China’s BRI in Pakistan.

Rejecting the baseless story about “rising indications” of its retreat, China clarified CPEC is maintaining positive momentum of development and there was no stop of construction, no layoffs and no withdrawal of workforce by China even amid the pandemic, reaffirming the magnitude of the project was being enhanced with inclusion of new areas such as agriculture, industry, science and technology, social economy and international cooperation.

The strong Chinese response and renewed commitments along novel media cooperation between the two sides and pioneering meeting on Covid-19 and poverty alleviation among regional countries including Pakistan refutes the press speculations and underscores China is not only keen to fast-track the CPEC but also intends to feed neoteric ideas into project to upgrade Pakistan’s major economic sectors.

Pakistan seeks to revamp its colonial-era railway network and produce 60% clean energy of the country’s overall electricity production. China – by agreeing to finance the ML-1 project and pouring huge investments in green power generation – is crucial for Pakistan to offset its railway quandary and growing climate challenges.

Chinese energy equipment and devices now match the western standards and cost two-thirds of their prices. As Pakistan looks toward China to further lessen its reliance on expensive oil-based electricity, the all-weather ally is ready to share China’s experience and technology in biomass energy and assist Pakistan’s clean energy transition.

What’s more, Chinese FDI flows in Pakistan have risen from $76.5 million to $253.9 million in the first five months of fiscal year 2020-21 albeit it divested $78.4 million in November. The staggering upturn in the middle of the Corona period shows China isn’t rolling back its investments or pledges and claims made by some media outlets were wide of the mark.

Gwadar, the port city on the southwestern coast of Pakistan’s Balochistan, is hailed as the crown jewel of the CPEC. Last year, Pakistani government unveiled Gwadar Smart City Master Plan to develop it into an economic, trade and tourism hub of South Asia with a per capita GDP of $15,000 – 10 times of its national average.

As Beijing and Islamabad brace up their strategic partnership and expand the CPEC scope, terrorist attacks in Balochistan – killing a number of security personnel in Gwadar and other districts as well as taking lives of coal miners across CPEC key route – are trying to undermine CPEC success by obstructing Gwadar’s emergence into a world-class city with an economy of $30 billion a year and up to 1.2 million high-paid jobs.

Prime Minister of Pakistan Imran Khan has no political ax to grind and singled out “India-backed terrorists” for the insurgent ambush that recently killed seven Pakistani troops in Harnai. On the brutal massacre of the laborers in Mach, Khan again lashed out at India over supporting Islamic State (IS) and spreading unrest in Pakistan.

The terrorist attacks warned of critical security implications for workers of foreign companies in Balochistan and vindicated Pakistan’s decision to fence off Gwadar to shield domestic and international workforce so that they could freely and actively deploy their professional skills for Gwadar’s transformation into one of the most modern city on the global map.

Some argue Gwadar fencing would intensify deprivation and marginalization or restrict freedom of movement in Balochistan, ignoring the current arrangement is temporary and being conducted in the open, unpopulated areas. That means it won’t affect local residents; instead reduced checkpoints will ease their routine activities, while witnessing mega construction underway around them for boosting their level of affluence.

The provisional Gwadar fencing will also speed up the establishment of high-tech industries, mega shopping malls, luxury resorts, man-made islands and Pakistan’s largest international airport. These development activities would provide the much-needed labor force participation and economic bustle in the city and province.

A vulnerable security situation can encumber trade and foreign investment. The fencing of Gwadar will bolster the provincial peace dynamics and encourage cautious foreign investors and tourists who have been hesitant to invest or please their scenic sense due to the continued strife in Balochistan.

Besides making vigorous efforts to protect CPEC from sabotage, Pakistan may also counter media propaganda and people’s anxieties about Gwadar fencing through delivering benefits of the game-changer project to the folks in Balochistan, where poverty is still at peak. Poor are least immune to fall in the pitfalls of extremism. By accelerating work on development projects, the impoverished Balochs can be prevented from falling into hands of the insurgents.

*This is one of my opinion pieces (unedited) that first appeared in "New Straits Times":
https://www.nst.com.my/opinion/columnists/2021/01/658889/cpec-progress-shows-bri-viability

How can the GCC reconciliation process be extended to the Persian Gulf?

By: Azhar Azam

In March 2001, the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) looked to achieve rare harmony after Doha settled thorny border disputes with Riyadh and Manama. The agreement culminated in Saudi Foreign Minister Saud al-Faisal saying all territorial conflicts within the bloc are resolved and his jazzed up Qatari counterpart Sheikh Hamad bin Jassem al-Thani feeling proud of Qatar’s ties with Saudi Arabia.

But the sweat-pouring effort merely dressed, not healed, the deep-wounded relationship and couldn’t hold out much longer as once the Kingdom a year later refused to host American troops at Prince Sultan Air Base (PSAB) for second invasion of Iraq and allow raids on Afghanistan – Qatar offered US shift its Gulf headquarters to Al-Udeid Air Base in exchange for protection from any potential military intervention by Saudi Arabia and allies.

Al-Jazeera broadcast, featuring Saudi opposition cleric Mohsen Al-Awaji who criticized Crown Prince Abdullah’s peace initiative and accused him for ditching the Palestinian cause, reopened regional rifts and drove Riyadh call back its ambassador from Doha. In 2014 and then 2017, Riyadh along other Arab nations cut ties with Doha over alleged Qatari intervention and destabilizing attempts their internal affairs and continued support for Islamist groups.

Iran-linked terrorist attacks on two major Saudi oil installations in September 2019 greatly helped the US to regain control and ramp up its military strength at PSAB in a bid counter Iranian hostilities in the region. It was the moment Donald Trump wanted a joint GCC front against Tehran that had quietly expanded its influence in Baghdad, Beirut, Damascus and Sana’a.

Change of US nerve center to Qatar and activation of 378th Air Expeditionary Wing on PSAB – which almost two decades earlier served as the primary location for US air power in the Middle East – was a fine example how the US exploited regional tensions and theatrically shaped regional environment to retain an overwhelming clout on grouping.

The activation claimed to defend Saudi Arabia from malign regional actors and protect US forces and interests. But even a neophyte can identify the activation was tactically designed and masterly implemented to ensure that the key air bases are under American control including PSAB, where reinforcements were more convenient in case of a war with Tehran.

Saudi Arabia and Iran are ideological rivals forever and Riyadh is gravely worried about its national security from Tehran-backed Houthis in Yemen that shares a long and porous border with the Kingdom. However, presence of foreign troops in the home of Islam’s holiest sites is also a major concern for the Kingdom – where existence of American forces is seen as a historical as betrayal, proof of country’s subservience to Washington and was part of the reason given by Osama bin Laden for September 11 terrorist attacks on the US, resulting in American pullout from Saudi Arabia in 2003.

With redeployment of the US troops – “a potent symbol of Washington’s role in the region” – the monarchy, threatened by armed struggle in Yemen, had no choice except tolerate the US military on its soil. The recapture of PSAB now provides US a strategic depth as analysts think it would aid relocation of American air assets from more vulnerable locations like Al Udeid and Al Dhafra in Qatar and the UAE respectively to Saudi base.

Clearly, Donald Trump was looking for a predominant control on both Qatar and Saudi Arabia, hoping to reimburse him an election win through consistently promoting Iran as an aggressive and hostile adversary to the US and Arab world. On the flip side, Americans rejected his offensive approach and voted in droves to oust him from the White House.

Trump desperately tried to pose himself a peace champion, bragging about his mediation for establishing diplomatic ties between Israel and some of the Mideast countries. As other Arab states seek certain financial, political, military rewards to give up their historical position on Palestine – for instance UAE will acquire its long-wished American weaponry; Sudan is removed from US terrorist list and Morocco can extend its claims on disputed Western Sahara – the contagion-like embrace of Israel will contribute to peace only if the coming Biden administration remains committed to these promises.

While the Riyadh-led GCC coalition ends the blockade of another group member Doha and all six states have signed the final communiqué and the AlUla Declaration at 41st GCC summit in Saudi Arabia – the US, previously sought schisms within the Council, is now making efforts to unite the GCC nations and fix the cracks in the “strong wall of opposition” against Iran.

The settlement is a right dose to vivify the deteriorating peace environment in the Middle East. Yet since it is an attempt to box Iran into the corner, the US-led GCC rapprochement could end up in an impasse given Doha maintains close relationship with Tehran against which Riyadh entreats for unity. In this backdrop, any anti-Iran alliance would push Persian Gulf toward further volatility and make the situation from bad to worse.

Qatar’s Foreign Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Mohammad bin Abdulrahman Al Thani last month in Russia called for a dialogue between Iran and other Persian Gulf countries and said Doha would welcome any initiative that could bring stability in the region. Meanwhile, the “Summit of Sultan Qaboos and Sheikh Sabah” declaration made no mention of Iran, that described the GCC states were at odds when it came to the Iranian threat.

Even though Iran has assured it is neither an enemy nor a threat to the Arab countries, Tehran’s set technique – unremitting involvement in Yemen, sustained influence in Lebanon and Syria and assiduous presence in Iraq – is unfurling worries among neighboring countries about its expansionist approach and narrowing the interminable gap between Arab realms and Israel.

At a time when the pandemic-hit economic crisis is expected to wipe off 6% from GCC economies and it won’t get back to 2019 levels by 2023, the bloc should take bold steps and extend the recent reconciliation process to the Persian Gulf. Iran, on the other hand, must scale back its support for Yemeni Houthis to prevent an upswing in Saudi exasperation.

In contemporary history, the western countries quickly realized the importance of religious tolerance, mutual coexistence and respect for each other’s sovereignty after the Second World War, helping them to achieve peace and rebuild the economy from scratch. The Mideast countries could learn this art from the West and should stop using lousy tricks, aimed at obliterating rival ideologies for a lusty pursuit of regional domination, which will bring wanton destruction to the region and dispatch them all to the Paleolithic period.

*This is one of my opinion pieces (unedited) that first appeared in "News24":

https://www.news24.com/news24/Columnists/GuestColumn/opinion-how-can-the-gcc-reconciliation-process-be-extended-to-the-persian-gulf-20210112

It's time to end differences and renew technology cooperation

By: Azhar Azam

America fancies itself a "warrior state," which believes in the use of force to assert its dominance across the world. During 240-plus-year history, there were very few times when the U.S. was at peace as successors of George Washington have been involved in bombing civilians and erasing towns of the smaller nations.

The 9/11 terrorist attacks shook centuries-old American "pride," and the power-drunk U.S. has so far spent over $6.4 trillion of American taxpayers' money to cover up its abject failure, killing more than 800,000 people and displacing millions worldwide. After coordinated attacks exposed serious flaws in overblown U.S. defense and inland security, increased U.S. covert and overt foreign intervention bore hard on its economy and stagnated technological growth.

Few years onward, the U.S. suddenly realized China was emerging as a leading global economic and technological power, threatening to end its international supremacy by firmly sticking to its policy of non-interference and non-intervention, producing skilled labor and learning lean manufacturing techniques.

While the U.S. decided ceding economic and technological wherewithal to pursue its overseas military objectives, China channeled all energies and resources on pushing development, growth, productivity, poverty alleviation and technology, the fuel of the 21st century to produce more intelligent products.

China continues to be the largest producer and exporter of consumer electronics, with its share in worldwide production of mobile phones, computers and televisions reaching 70-90 percent in 2018. Even Trump's tariffs haven't stopped American buyers from purchasing Chinese products as the country's exports to the U.S. rose 46.1 percent to about $52 billion in November.

The recently U.S.-sanctioned Chinese drone maker DJI is by far the world's largest commercial drone manufacturer, accounting for 70-80 percent of the global market. Experts say DJI is a highly vertically integrated company, produces a lot of their own hardware and wasn't tied to a U.S. operating system, so the blacklisting won't impede company's growth and could affect American firms selling components to DJI.

In 2013, China became the world's largest market of industrial robots and accounted for 38 percent of total installations in 2017 and 2018. Beijing planned to produce 100,000 industrial robots annually by 2020 and the fastest-growing robotics market is way ahead of its target, manufacturing more than 180,000 industrial robots in the first 10 months of 2020.

Between January and November 2020, Chinese software and information industry generated revenues of 7.31 trillion yuan ($1.12 trillion) including e-commerce, industrial software products and big data, cloud and information technology services. Software exports, despite a decline of 0.8 percent, still hit $41.7 billion. China is also the world's largest markets of Internet of Things (IoT) and Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT).

The porting and storage of data in machine-readable form would be "control point" in the world economy. China has already digitized medical records and sequenced DNA of hundreds of millions of its people. With Huawei set to add records of another half a billion, analysts foresee this sort of database will transform pharmaceutical research, manufacturing and logistics, enabling Beijing to have a Fourth Industrial Revolution complex reaching from the South China Sea to the European Rhine.

Back in July 2017, the Chinese government announced to turn the country into the world leader in AI through a three-step road-map: catch up to current AI world leaders' technological abilities by 2020, make major breakthroughs by 2025 and be the global leader in 2030.

It is well on track to become the first global superpower for AI by combining a sheer volume of data with talent, companies, research and capital to build the world's leading AI ecosystem. Kai-Fu Lee, an authority on AI and writer of one of the most influential books on technology, told Forbes that China, through data, AI and the entrepreneur ecosystem has rapidly evolved to be a true innovator and caught up with the U.S. in AI.

The government support to Chinese AI companies has helped them solve real world problems, ranging from medical imaging for cancer and disease diagnosis to smart cities applications, something Lee termed as "techno-utilitarianism" permitting China to quickly realize successes and failures in the AI sector.

A recent report by global market research firm International Data Corporation estimated Chinese AI market will hit about $6.3 billion in 2020 and is expected to maintain a compound annual growth of 30.4 percent to record $17.2 billion by 2024. The revelation expresses China with 15.6 percent contribution would be one of the key drivers in boosting the global AI development in the next four years.

The most pressing concern for the U.S. is China's role in global 5G infrastructure development. While developing and emerging markets are likely to embrace Huawei as they look to welcome Chinese low-cost, high-quality next-generation development networks, the major European countries such as Germany, Italy and France have to date blocked the Trump administration's assertiveness to exclude the world's largest telecom network provider from building their 5G infrastructure.

Washington jumped through hoops to disrupt Huawei's global business and last year put the Chinese technology giant on the U.S. export blacklist. However, the company still posted an impressive 9.9 percent growth to record revenue of about $100 billion in the first nine months of 2020, showing its resilience to the American tirade.

Change of administration may just be the right time for the U.S. to alter its attitude toward China. Trump overly invoked Section 301 to investigate alleged China's involvement in forced or required technology transfer and theft of the U.S. intellectual property. But his policies to restrict Chinese companies' access to advanced technology could not slow down Beijing's tech growth.

Like its other development and growth plans, China's tech ambitions are transparent and peaceful, and not intended to hurt U.S. economic interests. The U.S. is threatened to lag behind in some key technologies because of its aggressive foreign policy – pressing it to spend taxpayers' trillions of dollars and propelling instability in the world.

Once the U.S. drops its cynicism toward China, the two biggest economies of the world can manage to mend fences. Washington should stop skating on thin ice and stop perceiving Beijing as an adversary or a strategic competitor. The two sides maintained a historic technological relationship and can still resolve their differences on technology, relieving people of both countries and economic- and pandemic-stricken mankind as well as paving the way to build a safe, secure, peaceful, prosperous and technologically advanced world.

*This is one of my opinion pieces that first appeared at "China Global Television Network (CGTN)":

https://news.cgtn.com/news/2021-01-03/It-s-time-to-end-differences-and-renew-technology-cooperation-WK6lWwhcKQ/index.html

International trade could be first stride to buoy up growth in 2021

By: Azhar Azam

Over the last three decades, trade has been the cornerstone for pushing the global GDP. Globalization, which laid the foundation of modern prosperity by encouraging the manufacturing companies to globalize their production, drove global trade in GDP from about 39 percent in 1990 to more than 60 percent in 2019.

With Trump's trade war in 2020 threatening to upend the international trade system and U.S. and UK bans on Huawei likely to cost companies $3.5 trillion in the next five years to rebuild supply chains and deal with the rival techies, the crisis deepened by the pandemic will reverse the trend, dropping the ratio to 37 percent, the level seen at the end of Cold War.

International trade is the locomotive of global growth as well as a key driver to create jobs, reduce poverty and boost economic activity. Since 1990, it has increased global incomes by 24 percent and pulled more than 1 billion out of poverty due to economic growth underpinned by better trade practices.

The new wave of Globalization 4.0, where the digital economy is being translated into practice after maturing into prime mover of the global economy, expects the U.S. President-elect Joe Biden to thoroughly review and reform Donald Trump's nationalistic and protectionist trade policy that is closing off the global economies and strike a chord with world leaders to prevent a cliff-hanger situation.

While there would be a great debate in the coming years over who undermined global cooperation and growth more, Trump or the coronavirus, in 2020, it is far more vital for the new U.S. administration to bridge its trade differences with other economies and put joint efforts to strengthen multilateral trading system.

The outgoing U.S. president ripped off international trade rules and unilaterally imposed tariffs on hundreds of billions of Chinese goods. But the move adversely affected American importers and consumers that experienced the brunt of the costs, forcing them to pay more than $72 billion in duties as of December 17, according to the U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

In its latest press release, the World Trade Organization (WTO) said global trade rallied in the third quarter of 2020, showing an increase of 11.6 percent after falling by 12.7 percent for April-June. However, the global trade regulator warned the resurgence of the virus can take a toll on trade in the fourth quarter as cases spike across the world.

As the pandemic threatens to ravage global economic activity again, China's foreign trade (import and export combined) in goods notched 1.8 percent to 29.04 trillion yuan ($4.45 trillion) in the first 11 months of 2020 and is projected to reach at around 32 trillion yuan (about $4.9 trillion) for the full year.

China is the world's second-largest importer and holds a major share in global trade. As its imports surged 4.3 percent in the third quarter and are slowly catching up on last year's figures, the rebound in Chinese foreign trade will help stabilize the international market and stimulate the global supply chain, providing much-needed impetus to the global economy.

Kristalina Georgieva, managing director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), in November said, "With the right mix of supportive macroeconomic policies focused on strengthening social safety nets and further key reforms, China will secure the recovery and ensure balanced and high-quality growth, which will benefit China and the world."

Her comments were echoed in the economic outlook of the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) released on December 1. It predicts global GDP will bounce back before gradually reaching pre-pandemic levels by the end of 2021, with China accounting for one-third of world economic expansion.

China is now the largest trading partner of more than 120 countries and regions. Where the new forecast emphasized China's key role in rescuing the pandemic-hit global ecosystem and marked its utility as a lead contributor to the global growth, it unleashes an opportunity for the international states to bolster trade ties with China and streamline their uneven economic recovery and mitigate financial risks by fulfilling the demand created by world's second biggest economy.

The IMF says China is set to leapfrog 56 countries in the world's per capita income rankings by 2025, putting it close to join the richest one-third economies whereas the UK-based Center for Economics and Business Research predicts China would overtake the U.S. by 2028 and become an upper-income economy during the current five-year plan (2020-25).

The ever-growing China's trade relations with almost two-third of the world's nations and its fast-paced economic recovery would embolden other countries that they, while prioritizing health and life of the people, can still make their economic progress by first protecting people and then through supporting growth.

From January 1, 2021, China will be lowering tariffs on 883 items and would further reduce duties under free trade agreements it has separately signed with countries in addition to the Asia-Pacific Free Trade Agreement. The lower than the most-favored-nation rates will open floodgates of imports to the exporters across Asia and beyond.

As the world fights the even-deadlier second wave of coronavirus, major economies should complement each other's growth rather than embroiling themselves into rivalries and trade disputes. The ongoing financial crisis cannot be reversed by one country alone, so the global leaders must step up efforts to strengthen cooperation and promote multilateralism, for which boosting international trade could be the first step to achieve harmony and buoy up global growth in 2021.

*This is one of my opinion pieces that first appeared at "China Global Television Network (CGTN)":

https://news.cgtn.com/news/2020-12-31/International-trade-expected-to-buoy-up-growth-in-2021-WFcM1AEQOQ/index.html