Victory on the Silk Road

China won, but no one has to be the losing side. That, in short, is the conclusion I take from my fourth trip to this country, the first after the COVID-19 epidemic.

I have been associating with China and the Chinese since 2014, when I visited Beijing for the first time, then as a representative of a local media outlet, and participated in a seminar for media professionals from developing countries. The first time was a surprise, I did not expect to see all that social momentum carried by economic and technological development. The second time, a year later, journalists from the countries of Central and Eastern Europe, about fifty of us, visited Hangzhou, Ningbo, Yiwu, Zhengzhou, and the capital of China. The third time, 2019, was a cold October in Beijing and Shenyan, the capital of the northern province of Liaoning. Cold weather, but warm human welcom, as it happens with the Chinese. And the difference compared to previous trips was already noticeable. In the shortest time, in those five years, China has progressed significantly in every respect.

This issue is entirely dedicated to the Third Forum of the “Belt and Road” Initiative for international cooperation, which was held at the highest level in Beijing. That was the reason for my fourth trip to this magical country. This time I was ready for everything I would see.

This time, two respectable media shared the credit for my stay in China. The Xinhua News Agency and its Xinhua Institute organized a seminar for representatives of think tanks from all over the world. For a week, experts from Argentina, Brazil, Italy, Iraq, Kenya, Cuba, Romania, Somalia, Spain, Tonga… enjoyed a rich program in the eastern provinces of China, and the seminar ended with the grand finale in Beijing, at the Third BRI Forum. People’s Daily, the most famous and largest daily newspaper in China, organized the Silk Road News Awards ceremony, and for us, the finalists from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Egypt, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Serbia and Uganda, organized a special study trip to Sichuan and Guangdong provinces. Experiences from these trips are written here. The texts found here bear witness to these journeys. I am grateful to both media for the opportunity to be a part of the Silk Road story. I especially thank the young team from Xinhua, Yang and Mengyou, and the equally young team from People’s Daily, dear Jianying, Ming and Shuwei, who made an effort to make traveling around China an unforgettable experience.

And why I think China won and why it is not bad news for anyone, read on the following pages of this magazine.

Faruk Boric
editor-in-chief of “Voice of China