Six key takeaways from Xi Jinping’s Belt and Road Forum speech to world leaders
- No mention of US-China trade war, but elements of contention addressed
- No devaluation for the yuan but pledge to keep Chinese currency stable
President Xi Jinping did not pledge fresh capital to fund China’s ambitious “Belt and Road Initiative” and focused instead on “co-development” as he delivered a keynote speech at the second Belt and Road Forum in Beijing on Friday.
Compared with the inaugural 2017 event, Xi’s speech was shorter and contained fewer concrete proposals. Instead, he seems to have focused more on deflecting criticism and doubts about the multibillion-dollar initiative.
His speech was delivered just hours after an announcement by US President Donald Trump that Xi would visit the White House “soon”. Some of the measures announced in Xi’s speech have been under lengthy discussions during the trade talks with the US.
Here are the key takeaways from Xi’s speech:
China will not devalue the yuan
Xi said China would keep the Chinese currency stable within a reasonable range, but would not engage in any “beggar-thy-neighbour” currency devaluation, one of the criticisms of the US towards China.