The high profile meeting on Monday between Donald Trump and Jack Ma, head of the e-commerce giant Alibaba, has raised anticipation in China that the President-elect could join an international conference on the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) that Beijing will host later this year.
“Though this visit [by Mr. Ma] was at the outset a business visit, it will no doubt help improve China-U.S. relations. We are in fact, looking forward to welcoming Mr. Trump’s participation at the international cooperation summit on the Belt and the Road this May,” said Wang Yiwei, professor at Renmin University, in a conversation with The Hindu .
Last month, China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi announced that the Belt and Road summit and a meeting of BRICS countries will top Beijing’s diplomatic calendar in 2017. “The international cooperation summit forum on the Belt and Road initiative… will be a strategic measure to boost the world economy,” observed the Chinese Foreign Minister during his opening remarks at a symposium on December 3.
Following the meeting in New York, Alibaba announced that the group will create one million jobs in the U.S. over the next five years. Mr. Trump also effusively described his interaction with Mr. Ma as “a great meeting”.
“He loves this country and he also loves China,” Mr. Trump said. “Jack and I are going to do some great things.” He called Mr. Ma “a great entrepreneur, one of the best in the world”.
Professor Wang highlighted that Mr. Ma is the architect of the Electronic World Trade Platform (eWTP), and this proposal was accepted during the G-20 summit held last year at Hangzhou. “This should be of great interest to Mr. Trump, as he tries to revive the U.S. economy, including development of infrastructure.” The eWTP initiative hopes to establish an open platform that brings together private enterprises, international organisations, governments and social groups, focusing on small and medium enterprises, and trade.
Cautious response
Commenting on Mr. Ma’s meeting, an editorial in the Global Times , affiliated with the Communist Party, nevertheless cautioned that only a mutually beneficial relationship with the U.S. will work. “[Mr.] Ma went to the U.S. in a bid to seek expansion, not to pay tribute,” it observed. “In modern times, economic cooperation must be mutually beneficial. An economic partnership that benefits only one side will not go long.” The daily pointed out that “Alibaba's expansion into the U.S. will revitalise U.S. small businesses and boost American agriculture, and in this process China won’t lose jobs.”
However, the daily, referring to Mr. Trump’s controversial telephonic conversation with Taiwanese leader Tsai Ing-wen, remained unconvinced that Mr. Trump’s approach towards China was mainly transactional.
