G20 must be part of solution not problem

This is an editorial from China Daily.

At the 2022 G20 Summit that is to be held on Tuesday and Wednesday on the Indonesian island of Bali, the new UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is apparently going to speak ill of China in a roundabout way. He will reportedly tell the summit that developing nations must have access to credit for economic growth without becoming reliant on "exploitative" lenders, echoing past G7 "debt trap" criticism of China.

He is also likely to tell the summit that the World Trade Organization should be reformed to curb the "manipulation of global markets by malign actors", another common Western trope intended as a coded critique of China.

No doubt the other Western leaders will nod their heads in sage agreement and offer similar squeezings from sour grapes. Yet what the world's second-largest economy has done for developing countries and the global economy by means of the Belt and Road Initiative and other programs only brings into sharp relief how manipulative and exploitative of others these countries are.

Amid the current challenges facing the world, the G20 Summit is neither the time nor the place for the leaders of Western countries to air their grievances at China's rise and the emergence of other developing economies. They have plenty of other occasions when they can air their postprandial gripes among themselves. The G20 Summit is for serious business. It should be a platform for the leaders of the world's major economies to discuss ways to address the many concurrent crises impeding a global recovery and creating headwinds to shared development.

If Sunak and other Western leaders beat about the bush attacking China at this summit, it will make the meeting a wasted opportunity. There are too many issues that need to be dealt with by the joint efforts of the international community for leaders of major countries to hear about such meaningless grievances.

With an increasing number of developing countries benefiting from the Belt and Road Initiative, more and more world leaders have come to realize that China is promoting global economic development with all the programs it has launched.

By comparing what China has been doing as a cooperating partner with what Western countries have done as colonial powers, the developing economies and least-developed countries know well which country has been helping them and which have been exploiting them.

At their summit in Bali, all the participants should earnestly compare notes on the best ways to approach the many pressing challenges the world faces rather than indulging in clique politics.

They should try to put aside their differences and reach a consensus on concerted actions to solve as many issues as possible. They should put the common interests of the international community ahead of parochial concerns.