China Offers Silk Road As “Noah’s Ark” to Escape Global Financial Crisis

Opening the “Silk Road Forum 2015” in Madrid, Spain, Wednesday, Li Wei, director of the Development Research Center of the State Council of China (DRC), offered the beautiful idea, that the nations of the world can “build an immense and open economic Noah’s Ark” around China’s “One Belt One Road” program and thus “help escape the financial crisis and help establish stability and recovery in the global economy,” Xinhua reported.

Three hundred guests from more than 30 countries and international institutions participated in the forum, co-sponsored by the DRC, the Chinese Embassy in Spain, and the Center for International Relations and Sustainable Development (CIRSD), whose honorary president is former Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos. Its objective was to bring together the think tanks of countries involved in the Silk Road, foster international communication, and unite institutions.

Li Wei also described the Silk Road Economic Belt and 21st Century Maritime Silk Road as “tools to escape structural contradictions and lead to the next phase of prosperity in the global economy,” because it is through cooperation between nations that nations can resolve their own domestic structural contradictions, according to Xinhua.

The Silk Road is beginning to generate interest in Spain. Spain’s Commerce Secretary of State Jaime Garcia-Legaz told the forum that the best of Spanish-Chinese relations “is still to come.” Former Foreign Minister Moratinos spoke on the Silk Road as a model of international relations which can strengthen relations between the West and the East. The confidence and synergy which result from it can bring together different countries and cultures who understand that there is an open space for cooperation and improving the global economic situation.

The Spanish government had organized a day-long seminar on Oct. 20 in Madrid on the “Logistics of Exporting to China,” in which the same Garcia-Legaz spoke, along with the trade attache of China. And earlier in October, Spain’s fourth-largest city, Valencia, kicked off organizing for a big international “Silk Road Cities” forum which is to be held in Valencia in June 2016.