An article in People’s Daily underlines the fact that the world is waiting for China to take the lead in reforming economic governance. The article by Guo Jiping was given an “abstract translation” in the Chinese edition of the paper Thursday.

In the article, Guo says that “eight years have passed since the onset of the global financial crisis, but downward pressure lingers in today’s world economy.” The G20, he writes, has an advantage as a platform in dealing with this crisis. “The world is counting on China at this critical stage of the ongoing global economic governance transformation,” Guo says.  He then goes through the four “I’s” announced by President Xi Jinping as the theme of this year’s summit: “Towards an Innovative, Invigorated, Interconnected, and Inclusive World Economy.”

With regard to innovation, Guo writes: “The world economy can only be revived by innovative technology, pro-development philosophy, new mechanisms, and fresh business modes.”“Invigoration can release development potential,” he continues. “The G20 members should stimulate economic vitality by intensifying global cooperation and accelerating domestic structural reforms, so that they can push for a more equal-footed, reasonable, and highly-efficient form of global economic governance; optimize their endogenous impetus, and thus fully release the potential of world economy.”

“Interconnection” means that “only by synergizing each country’s development with global economic growth, can resources around the world be allocated in the most optimal way.” “Inclusiveness” refers to “the responsibility of the international community to benefit people in every corner of the world with the dividends of global economic growth.”“With innovation as a priority, the Hangzhou summit will work out a G20 Blueprint on Innovative Growth and formulate action plans on innovation, the new industrial revolution and digital economy,” Guo writes. “The summit will also decide on the prioritized areas, guidelines and index system of the structural reform; deepen international financial architecture reform, and optimize the global financial security network, in order to promote the re-balancing of the world economy.”

Guo then concludes by underlining the important paradigm- shift which the summit hopes to accomplish: “Facing rising geopolitical and security challenges, the G20 Hangzhou summit will focus on international economic cooperation and lay the foundation for world stability. By inviting the most developing countries ever to attend the meeting, the meeting also aims to narrow the development gap and call for an inclusive world economy.” 

Speaking a day before the inauguration of the Eastern Economic Forum at Vladivostok, New Development Bank (NDB, also known as the BRICS Bank) Vice President Zhu Xian said: “We established good relations with the AIIB. Also we have already started discussion of possible forms of cooperation. Firstly, we plan to co-finance some projects. Secondly, we have already signed the relevant agreement on cooperation. At the moment, many investment projects are in need of financing. That’s why we should not compete, but complement each other,” Tass reported Thursday.

Both the AIIB and NDB are headquartered in China, and were set up to partner-finance projects that would fill in the huge infrastructure gap that has paralyzed development in Eurasia,  if not around the world. Nominally speaking, the NDB focuses on the five BRICS countries while the AIIB focuses on Asian countries. Tass also reported Zhu saying, “I think we complement each other; also a lot of investment projects lack finance….  We want to be the financial institution of the 21st century, but not to be a copy of the traditional financial institution,” he added, referring to the IMF and World Bank.

While the joint financing projects have not been finalized yet, Zhu Xian said the NDB “experts are studying the possibility of funding road construction projects in Russia.””A number of Russian projects attracted our attention, especially in the transport sector,” Zhu added, according to Tass. In addition, Zhu told Sputnik today:”We have plans in other national bond markets, including Russia. We are already in discussions with the Russian government on the possibilities of issuing ruble-based bonds in Russia as well.” 

The three day conference on Nuclear Power in the Asia-Pacific Region, sponsored by the IAEA in Manila, concluded Thursday with a rousing call from the Duterte government’s Energy Secretary for reopening the mothballed Bataan Nuclear Plant and proceeding onwards with nuclear power.

Energy Secretary Alfonso Cusi said that the conference had provided him and others with a “virtual crash course on the entire chain of launching  a nuclear program and the importance of public information.” He said that he and others had visited the Bataan plant Thursday morning. “The timing of this summit is perfect,” Cusi said. “As a coincidence we had a hearing also in the Senate. We discussed also nuclear power plants and today we inspected the BNPP and there are a lot of discussions,” he said.

It should be noted that Butch Valdes, the head of the Philippines LaRouche Society, had organized a tour of the Bataan plant for politicians and engineers several years ago, which sparked the growing interest in reversing the disaster of shutting the plant after its completion in 1985, without producing a single watt of electricity. He has since been the leading spokesman for restoring the Bataan plant, and was invited to address the conference on Wednesday 

Cusi said that “with intensified electrification programs, increasing population, and strong GDP growth, demand for electricity is expected to grow by an average of 5 percent per year… This is the most pressing concern for the country,” and that “given its known characteristics, nuclear energy can be a viable choice for the country.”

Cusi said one of the things they learned was how other nations launched their own nuclear programs.

The meeting was chaired by the Philippine Ambassador to the UN, Zeneida Angara Collinson, who told the press: “For me the most important thing is the understanding of our people about what nuclear energy, nuclear power is all about. Having understood that, then we can form our own opinion.”  She noted that experts who attended the event claimed that the BNPP was sturdier than the nuclear reactor in Fukushima, which was damaged by an earthquake and a tsunami. She said that while a single nuclear reactor will cost billions of pesos, it is cheaper to run because of the relatively cheap cost of fuel, and noted the dozens of nuclear plants being constructed in Asia. “They can no longer get [energy] from biomass, solar,” she said, adding that they were “fluctuating and we cannot use them as baseload.”  The ambassador said the Philippines is already lagging behind. “Malaysia already has a nuclear science university,” she said, explaining that knowledge in nuclear science can be applied to agriculture and health.

China’s Party newspaper Global Times editorialized on Wednesday that the US and Japanese efforts to draw China into a geopolitical confrontation will not work, and encouraged the government to not be diverted, but to proceed with win-win policies.

The editorial reviews Abe’s cooperation with Russia, Obama’s “Pivot” and his upcoming trip to the ASEAN Summit in Laos, and the Indian Defense Minister’s current visit to Washington, noting that western pundits describe these moves as efforts to pull countries away from their cooperation with China. “China seems to be positioned in the center of the geopolitical maneuvers by the US and Japan,” the editorial says. “But Beijing should not let its attention be led by the two. Geopolitics in the 21st century is not like the traditional game of ‘Go’ where every piece aims to encircle the others. The outside world has miscalculated geopolitics by interpreting China’s diplomacy.”

It notes that China is not “encircling” the US when they establish ties with Cuba and Mexico and other Latin American nations, nor challenging India by working on development projects in Sri Lanka.

On the other hand, they continue: “The US and Japan have the motivations to initiate a geopolitical competition with China, but China will not be made to give in. Myanmar is a neighbor of China that Washington and Tokyo have been particularly keen to court. Nonetheless, after Aung San Suu Kyi’s recent China visit, the relationship between China and Myanmar is steering in the opposite direction to the wishes of the US and Japan. The arbitration case around the South China Sea, a contention point between China and the US, will eventually prove beneficial for China.”

They conclude: “China has just become a real major power. China needs to develop modern national defense, and at the same time keep long-term economic vitality and expand its vision. The Chinese military should become so strong that we can withstand any external military pressure. The Chinese economy should retain its momentum of long-term prosperity that will surpass that of the US. This is the primary task for China, and we should not let our attention be diverted by the clamorous geopolitical rivalry in the Asia-Pacific.”