On March 23rd, 2018, the Vakaro ŽINIOS, published a signed article by H. E. Mr. Shen Zhifei, Chinese Ambassador to the Republic of Lithuania, entitled "China Express, on board or not?". The full text is as follows:

China Express, on board or not?

China's foreign policy of "Building A Community with Shared Future for Mankind" and the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) have been broadly welcomed by the world. However, some European politicians have made irresponsible and even misreading remarks out of their basis of ideology and the Cold War mentality. Truth can never be distorted. It is time to set a correct understanding of the facts and show the readers the real scene.

The world is undergoing major developments, transformation, and adjustment, but peace and development remain the call of our day. Along with the trends of economic globalization and IT application surging forward, emerging markets and developing countries are rapidly rising and new opportunities spring up. At the same time, unconventional challenges, such as terrorism and financial crisis etc., have become increasingly prominent, bringing unprecedented global impact. As the interdependence among countries around the world is becoming increasingly closer, the international community urgently calls for a new concept of global governance in order to build a more just and rational international system and open up a brighter future for mankind. Against this background, the China-appeal of "Building A Community with Shared Future for Mankind" adapts to the call of the time and provides the world with a plan of global governance in Chinese wisdom.

Once this China-plan was put forward, it has been universally recognized and aroused echo in the international community. An article in the American website The Diplomat commented that the vision of "Building A Community with Shared Future for Mankind" describes a world of mutual cooperation, with the  prerequisite for a win-win cooperation, rather than an old thinking dominated by zero-sum. António Guterres, the Secretary-General of the United Nations, said: "China has become an important pillar of multilateralism, and the purpose of our practice of multilateralism is to build a community with shared future for mankind." This China-appeal has also been put in record of UN Resolutions.

The core of "Building A Community with Shared Future for Mankind" is to build an open, inclusive, clean and beautiful world that enjoys lasting peace,universal security, and common prosperity, which profoundly answered the questions of the century "what is and how to build a better world".

In terms of politics, we should respect each other, conduct consultations as equals, stick to the path of peaceful development, to forge a new type of international relations featuring non-conflict, non-confrontation, mutual respect, fairness and justice, and win-win cooperation.

In terms of security, we should be committed to settling disputes through dialogue and resolving differences through consultation. We need joint efforts to fight against conventional and unconventional threats like terrorism. We should foster new thinking on common, comprehensive, cooperative and sustainable security.

In terms of economy, we should boost trade and investment liberalization and facilitation, create a good institutional environment, uphold WTO rules and prioritize the development of partnerships, making economic globalization more open, inclusive and balanced, so that the benefits can be shared by all.

In terms of culture, we should respect the diversity of civilizations and promote harmony, inclusiveness and respect for differences. In handling relations among civilizations, let us replace estrangement with exchange, clashes with mutual learning, and superiority with coexistence.

In terms of ecology, we should be good friends to the environment, cooperate to tackle climate change, promote harmony between nature and human, implement the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and firmly pursue green, low-carbon, circular, and sustainable development.

The BRI, put forward by China, came into being as an action to implement the appeal of "Building A Community with Shared Future for Mankind". The initiative adheres to the principle of "extensive consultation, joint efforts, shared benefits", which demonstrated that the BRI cooperation has clear feature of equality, openness and inclusiveness. In the past two years, "Building A Community with Shared Future for Mankind" and the BRI have been appreciated by the international community broadly. This exemplified that China's initiative, China's plan and China's wisdom are transformed into international consensus as China's contribution.

"A single flower does not make a spring", and the dream of the Chinese people is in conformity with the dreams of peoples of the world. Since the outbreak of the global financial crisis, China's economic growth has contributed more than 30% to the world's economic growth. In the coming five years, China is expected to import eight trillion US dollars worth of goods and service, attract 600 billion US dollars of foreign investment and make 750 billion US dollars of outbound investment. Chinese tourists will make 700 million outbound visits. All this will offer more  opportunities to other countries..

Facts speak louder than words. In recent years, the high-level contacts between China and Lithuania have become increasingly closer, with the constant expansion of pragmatic cooperation in various fields. The Lithuanian Government actively participated in the "The Belt and Road" construction and "16+1 cooperation" and achieved fruitful results. In November, 2017, the MOU between the Governments of China and Lithuanian on cooperation in the framework of BRI was signed, which laid a solid foundation for the two countries to deepen the cooperation in economy, trade, humanities, transportation, communications, and agricultural education, showing the strong determination of the two governments to strengthen cooperation and create prosperity together. Up till now, China has signed the Belt and Road MOUs with 80 countries and organizations, including Lithuania, conducted institutionalized cooperation on industrial capacity with over 30 countries, and built 75 overseas economic and trade cooperation zones in 34 countries under the Belt and Road framework. China has invested over US$50 billion and created near 200 thousand local jobs in the countries covered by the BRI.

Development is above all. Only by seizing opportunities and speeding up development can we better improve people's livelihood and find solutions to other issues. To actively join the BRI is the best way to deepen the people-to-people exchanges between China and Lithuania, and bring in more projects and new achievements which will, beyond any doubt, to promote the sustainable development of Lithuania.

From the idea of "World is one for all" of Confucianism over 2,000 years ago to today's "Building A Community with Shared Future for Mankind", as a builder of world peace, a contributor to global development and a defender of the international order, China will continue to play its role as a responsible major power and persist in the efforts of "Building A Community with Shared Future for Mankind", promoting the international community to constantly move toward to a new era for the benefits of all. We welcome Lithuania to seize the opportunities and work closely with BRI, and work together for our common dream of development. Together we make tangible achievements to benefit our two countries and the two peoples.

Currently the development of China is just like an express train on the fast track. We will open our arms to people of other countries and welcome them abroad the express train of China's development. On board or not, every country has the right to decide. On board for common development or miss the good opportunity? No matter what the choice is, China Express is just right there, speeding towards prosperity.