Belt and Road Initiative inspires US community

By Zhuan Ti | China Daily | Updated: 2017-05-12 07:27

During the Easter holiday, the China Energy Fund Committee was invited by United States think tank the Schiller Institute to speak about the Belt and Road Initiative and the US response at a seminar attended by more than 200 intellectuals and grassroots representatives from the US.

Last month, Chinese President Xi Jinping met with the US President Donald Trump at Sea Lake Manor in Florida, where he told Trump that China would welcome US participation in the B&R and, more generally, its cooperation with China in trade and business.

During the seminar, Patrick Ho Chi Ping, vice-chairman and secretary-general of CEFC expressed his hope that the United States would join the B&R, using its economic and social achievements to cooperate with China and to reconstruct war-torn areas such as the Middle East and North Africa, thereby bringing peace and stability to the locals, especially the youth, and giving them hope for their future prosperity.

Ho stressed that the true value of the B&R lies in its capacity to not only address the geopolitical interests of the participating countries, but also to benefit the whole world. The B&R will bring peace, stability and hope to the current turbulent world, he said.

Deputy Consul-General of the People's Republic of China in New York Zhang Meifang and Representative of Russia to the United Nations Pyotr Ilichov also spoke at the seminar. The seminar was a success, with attendees expressing the hope that the US would take part in the B&R.

Driven by the audience's enthusiasm for China's B&R, Ho was invited to visit the Harlem area of New York City to introduce the initiative to the public there. Harlem is famous as a major African-American residential area. This was believed to be the first time that detailed information about the B&R was provided to ordinary people in a specific area of the US.