Xi decries protectionism

President Xi Jinping criticised protectionism yesterday at a summit positioning China as a champion of globalisation, and secured a free trade commitment from almost 30 other world leaders as the meeting wound up.

Xi addressed the leaders on the second day of the forum on his new Silk Road plan, a huge infrastructure project intended to revive ancient land and sea trade routes from Asia to Europe and Africa.

"It is our hope through the Belt and Road development, we will unleash new economic forces for global growth, build new platforms for global development, and rebalance economic globalisation so mankind will move closer to a community of common destiny," Xi said at the close of the event.

Xi said China would host the second Belt and Road Forum in 2019.

The inclusive tone of China's Belt and Road push stands in stark contrast to US President Donald Trump's "America First" policy, which included the scrapping of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) deal, a regional trade pact involving Pacific Rim countries but excluding China.

Xi on Sunday pledged $124 billion for the new "Silk Road", which aims to bolster China's global leadership ambitions by building infrastructure and trade links between Asia, Africa, Europe and beyond.

Some Western diplomats have expressed unease about the initiative, seeing it as an attempt to promote Chinese influence globally. They are also concerned about transparency and access for foreign companies.

Germany said its firms were willing to support the Belt and Road initiative, but more transparency was needed.

European Commission Vice President Jyrki Katainen told Reuters yesterday that EU member states would not be signing ministerial statements connected to the summit.

"The European Commission, who has a mandate, who has the capacity to negotiate on behalf of member states on trade-related issues, we were not given a chance to negotiate on the text," he said.