Xi Jinping has opened a conference to mark 10 years of the Belt and Road initiative by criticising Western efforts to reduce dependence on the Chinese economy.
The Chinese president on Tuesday celebrated his plan of building global infrastructure and energy networks connecting Asia with Africa and Europe through overland and maritime routes.
Representatives of more than 130 countries are attending the summit in Beijing, including Vladimir Putin who heaped praise on Mr Xi, saying "our Chinese friends did it". Taliban officials showed up, as did Hungary’s far-right prime minister, Viktor Orbán – the lone EU voice.
The summit is taking place at the Great Hall of the People, to the west of Tiananmen Square, and is giving Mr Xi the chance to grandstand and bask in the plaudits of his backers. But it is also a chance for beneficiaries to comment on the scheme with Indonesia's president, Joko Widodo, whose country owes China more than $20 billion, saying in a speech that projects "must not complicate [countries'] fiscal conditions".
With the exception of Mr Orban, European Union leaders stayed away, as did any British contingent. The initiative is controversial and critics have said it is indebting poorer countries to China.
However, Mr Xi was bullish in his assessment of Western scepticism. He said: "Our lives will not be better and our development will not be faster if we view the development of others as a threat and economic interdependence as a risk.
“We stand against unilateral sanctions, economic coercion, decoupling and supply chain disruption.”
The conference is a rare overseas excursion for Mr Putin and the Russian president was seen holding what is known as the nuclear briefcase. He was set to enter talks with Mr Xi over a China-Mongolia-Russia natural gas pipeline project.
Taliban leaders, meanwhile, are attending with an interest in China’s involvement in the Middle East. The Afghan administration's commerce minister, Haji Nooruddin Azizi, said: “China has more interest right now in developing Afghanistan at this moment, so we are more engaged with China. The Chinese have more interest in economic affairs, that's why we're here.”
The British Foreign Office has been contacted for its position.
What is the meaning of the Belt and Road initiative?
The project is a signature policy of Mr Xi and is essentially a £820 billion gamble by China to install infrastructure in the developing world using loans as investments.
It was launched in 2013 with "belt" referring to overland routes connecting China to Europe and "road" a reference to the maritime network linking China to Asia and Africa.
Transport projects, power plants and railways have built in the Global South, with one example being a multibillion-pound railway in Kenya.
The idea was to boost China’s economy and influence on the global stage as well as helping developing countries make economic gains they otherwise have not been able to afford.
How many countries are involved in the Belt and Road initiative?
One hundred and fifty countries are involved, making up three-quarters of the world's nations.
The initiative has helped China ease away from partners it traditionally relied upon, such as the US and Japan. It has turned to Brazil rather than the US for soya beans, for example, and now gets gas from Russia rather than Japan.
"China hopes that the China-Mongolia-Russia natural gas pipeline project will make substantive progress as soon as possible," Mr Xi said according to a state media readout.
Mr Xi is making the Belt and Road smaller and greener, moving away from big-ticket projects like dams to high-tech ones such as digital finance and e-commerce platforms.
The aim is to increase China's worldwide influence. The initiative will give the Global South more agency, thereby reducing the importance of the US and its allies, analysts said.
What are the criticisms of it?
Analysts have said some of China's infrastructure lending has saddled poor countries with loans they can't repay. It has left nations such as Sri Lanka, the Maldives, Laos and Kenya in debt, according to the BBC, and projects are often not needed or not appropriate.
There have also been alleged human rights abuses in the construction of some of the major projects.
