From Hangzhou to Hamburg: China takes a greater role in leading the world

By Rabi Sankar Bosu

World leaders in Hamburg have gathered under the slogan “Shaping an interconnected world” for their G20 Summit. Chinese president Xi Jinping is among them.

The theme consists of the three major global agendas: to ensure economic stability, to enhance sustainability to create a shared future, and to push for responsible development. These agenda items resonate well with last year’s G20 summit in Hangzhou, chaired by President Xi, and which also emphasized the importance of a coordinated innovation drive to address the prolonged sluggishness of the global economy. It is anticipated that the premier forum for international economic cooperation will be watched closely by the global public because, as President Xi Jinping noted, “The mechanism belongs not only to its members but also to the entire world.”

Chinese President Xi Jinping presides over an informal leaders' meeting of the emerging-market bloc, which groups Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, in Hamburg, Germany, July 7, 2017. South African President Jacob Zuma, Brazilian President Michel Temer, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi attended the meeting. [Photo: Xinhua]

The two-day G20 Summit of the world's leading nations comes as rising protectionism poses a new challenge to the spirit of economic globalization. The European Union and Germany have been turning increasingly towards Asia – to China, India and Japan - when it comes to free trade or even climate protection, since Donald Trump took over the White House as US President. It is expected that other G20 summit members, under the leadership of President Xi Jinping and German Chancellor Angela Merkel, will present a common front against Donald Trump, particularly over trade protectionism, the refugee crisis and the Paris Agreement on climate protection. China and Germany benefit a lot from globalization. President Xi is a staunch advocate of free trade and global interconnectivity. 

The G20, short for "Group of 20", brings together the heads of states, finance ministers and central bank governors from the world’s leading economies. Founded in 1999 to give developing countries a more powerful voice in the global economy, the summit welcomes both industrialized and emerging economies. It’s formed of 19 countries and the European Union (EU). A key feature of the group is its representativeness. Together, it accounts for up to 85 per cent of the world’s GDP, that’s around three-quarters of global trade and two-thirds of the world’s population.

The G20 meetings have now arguably achieved a relatively higher status than the G7, formerly the G8. The G20 presidency rotates between members and is chosen from different regions each year. After the last summit in Hangzhou, in East China's Zhejiang Province, Germany assumed the G20 presidency in December 2016. The world's eyes are now on Hamburg, the host city of the 12th G20 summit.

This is the fifth time that President Xi has taken part in the G20 summit since taking office in 2013. Xi's presence at the summit is a sign of the value that China places on G20 co-operation and demonstrates China's positive and constructive attitudes towards promoting the G20 as a means of boosting cooperation and growth, and improving global economic governance. It is expected that the G20 Hamburg summit will focus on issues of global economic growth, trade, the spread of digitalization, climate policy, terrorism and poverty eradication in Africa. In the words of China’s Vice Minister of Commerce, Wang Shouwen, “China hopes the summit will enhance trade and investment cooperation, explore new growth points for the economy, promote inclusive and sustainable development, and send clear signs advocating multilateral trade mechanisms.”

Since China embraced the G20, its efforts to hold the body together have been praiseworthy. The Chinese contribution to the G20 framework made the 11th G20 Hangzhou Summit the most fruitful since the G20 was founded. China has refused to settle for the G20 being a mere talking shop; it demands positive action and is doing everything in its power to get the right results for the world economy.

The 2016 G20 Hangzhou summit has left an economic legacy with landmark China solutions felt far and wide on the world economy. Chinese President Xi Jinping has called boldly for an innovative global economy that generates growth; an open economy seeking to expand the scope of development; an interconnected economy that forges an interactive dynamism and an inclusive economy that creates the foundations for mutually beneficial outcomes for all. Since the Hangzhou summit, China has looked like “a better guardian of global economic governance than a US paralyzed by poisonous politics” at home and handicapped by distractions abroad.

Tristram Sainsbury, a research fellow at the G20 Studies Centre at Australia’s Lowy Institute for International Policy, said that amid a backlash against globalization in rich countries, China’s efforts to make the G20 relevant should not be read as “China taking leadership away from the West,” but as “a way of China working cooperatively with other G20 countries to promote collective good.” Certainly, the Hangzhou summit displayed the leadership of China and the leadership of Xi Jinping on globalization.

Wearing the mantle of the revolving G20 presidency, German Chancellor Angela Merkel is hosting this year’s G20 Summit in Hamburg, the second largest city in Germany. Analysts believe that Chancellor Merkel is on collision course with US President Donald Trump. The summit regarded by many as the US President’s first major foreign diplomacy test. 

As host, Merkel plans to make climate change, free trade and mass migration key themes of the Hamburg Summit. Since Trump’s withdrawal of the US from the landmark Paris climate agreement, the EU and German MPs are more determined than ever to make it a success. China and India have also made a public stance of support for the Paris accord. Both countries have assured they will not pull out of the treaty, despite the US withdrawal. It can be boldly said that, this summit will be a test of the G20 countries' commitment on climate change following Trump's rejection of the Paris Agreement.

It should be noted here that, during his meeting with Chancellor Merkel in Berlin, the Chinese Prime Minister Li Keqiang said on June 1, 2017, that his country would continue to work with the EU and other countries to uphold the deal. The EU and China are joining forces to forge ahead on the implementation of the Paris Agreement and accelerate the global transition to clean energy. No doubt, Trump's reneging on the Paris climate deal turns the US into a rogue state. The US has violated its own commitment on fighting climate change, so there is nothing wrong if China and Germany put pressure on the US, whether Trump likes it or not.

Trump's maiden trip to Europe as president in May to attend a G7 summit in Italy and NATO summit in Brussels, left European leaders in shock, with Merkel saying later that the United States and Britain were no longer reliable partners. Angela Merkel's speech to the German parliament on June 29, 2017, made it abundantly clear that Germany and France will take a greater role in leading the European Union, and Europe must take a greater role in leading the world. She argued that international cooperation was essential to ensure economic development and sustainability for the future and defended the annual G20 summits as a useful instrument for global change.

Observers said that this year, the G20 summit will take place under particularly challenging conditions. US President Donald Trump, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan will attend the summit with their own agendas. Erdogan would like to take the opportunity to talk to Turks living in Germany. Trump wants to use the summit as an opportunity to meet President Putin in person for the first time. He wants to use Hamburg to strike up a "constructive relationship" with Russia.

It is also reported that President Trump is looking forward to meeting President Xi again, on the sidelines of the G20 Summit to continue to build a constructive and results-oriented bilateral relationship. During their first meeting at Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida in early April, he accepted Xi's invitation for a state visit to China this year.

China has great expectations for the Hamburg Summit. Since passing the baton of the G20 Leaders’ Summit to Germany, it has cooperated with Berlin in hosting a successful summit. Last September, at the Hangzhou Summit, China along with other participants agreed on a number of innovative outcomes and made significant contributions to promoting strong, sustainable, balanced and inclusive growth of the world economy.

President Xi urged the leadership of the G20 in a self-authored article titled "To Make the World a Better Place" published on June 4 in the German newspaper Die Welt, saying “We hope that the G-20 will continue to uphold the great goal of an open world economy. As long as countries stay true to our commitment to inclusiveness and mutual assistance, we will be able to forge ahead against all odds.”

During the G20 summit, there are many side meetings, including bilateral and multilateral dialogues, such as those involving members of G7, BRICS and MIKTA members (Mexico, Indonesia, Republic of Korea, Turkey and Australia). China and India are members of the G20 and BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa). China and India are the second and seventh largest world economies, respectively, ranking the second and first in terms of growth rate, and first and third in terms of contribution to world economic growth.

The G20 is a broader co-operation platform for China and India. Surely, both countries’ synergy will energize the G20 and BRICS. Both sides need to make shared efforts to shift the G20 from a crisis-response mechanism to one of long-term governance. President Xi and the Indian Prime Minister Modi are to take part in the BRICS leaders meeting, which is scheduled for Friday, June 7 on the sidelines of the G20 meetings. The two leaders last met on the margins of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit in Astana, Kazakhstan, June 9, 2017. 

The G20 is a mechanism of global governance, which has a positive effect on confronting the global economic crisis. Despite a surge of anti-globalization sentiment of the administration of President Trump, highlighted by Trump's America First policy, the G20 countries should work together to perfect the global governance system and make globalization better benefit all countries and peoples.

China under the leadership of President Xi Jinping should “guide” the international community to build a more just and reasonable new world order. Since Trump’s election, China has emerged as the world’s strongest proponent of globalization. In his keynote speech at the opening plenary of the 2017 World Economic Forum (WEF) Annual Meeting in Davos in January, President Xi offered a vigorous defense of globalization and free trade amid increasing protectionism and populism in the West.

It is hoped the success of the G20 Hangzhou Summit will help G20 leaders reach consensus in Hamburg. The Hamburg Summit can deliver a clear signal for building an open world economy, safeguarding the free trade system, and promoting the globalization to develop toward a fairer and universally beneficial direction.

It is expected that during the two-day mammoth international conclave, world leaders will reach a new consensus about implementing the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, and helping developing countries, especially African countries, rid themselves of poverty. It is expected that the Hamburg G20 summit will help China to position itself as the new global champion, for globalization and a defender of free trade which other G20 members can follow when the Trump administration has stepped back from America's traditional role of dominance on trade and development.

Rabi Sankar Bosu is the Secretary of New Horizon Radio Listeners' Club in West Bengal, India.