More global public goods like the Belt and Road are needed

China has enabled the world to achieve many milestones during the first 10 years of the Belt and Road Initiative. Among the biggest contributions of the BRI is the narrowing of the investment gap to improve infrastructure.

Before the launch of the BRI, the world, especially the developing Global South, was desperately looking for incoming investment, but traditional institutions were either unable or unwilling to meet the expectations. Against this backdrop, the BRI was welcomed by countries, especially developing and least-developed countries.

However, the BRI was never welcomed by certain Western politicians and capitalists who always try, via mainstream and social media, to undermine the significance of the BRI and its contributions to the world. Since the launch of the BRI in the autumn of 2013, they have been busy propagating against it, calling the BRI a "debt trap", a mode of interference, a new form of colonization and other things.

The propaganda has included the weaponization of democracy. In this endeavor, China's democracy and governance system became targets. Although China's "whole-process people's democracy" has successfully helped it to eliminate absolute poverty and become the most stable large economy and top global investment destination, it was not recognized by the "liberal" world. If any country does not agree with US objectives, then that country will at least be excluded from US engagement.

The right to development has also been weaponized, with efforts made to malign the BRI.

However, a deep dive into the rhetoric and propaganda of the West highlights three points: There is nothing wrong with the BRI or its programs. The real problem for the West is that some other country is emerging as a global player. The West does not want China to rise, hence the malicious smearing campaign against the BRI.

Moreover, the BRI presents an alternative to Western institutions. Countries now have options for investment and economic linkages, and BRI investment comes without any political or diplomatic strings. The BRI also respects local governance and economic systems and does not try to interfere in domestic systems. It is entirely different from the working styles of Western countries and institutions.

Furthermore, the BRI has effectively ended the exploitation by Western institutions and countries. They cannot dictate their terms and conditions anymore.

In a nutshell, the BRI has put an end to a new type of colonization, which the West introduced after World War II, and has instead pointed to joint building of a community of shared future with harmony and diversity.

Yet Western BRI-emulating initiatives have emerged like the G7's Build Back Better World and Partnership for Global Infrastructure and Investment, the US' Better Utilization of Investments Leading to Development Act, the India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor, and the Asia-Africa Growth Corridor, an economic cooperation agreement involving India, Japan and multiple African countries.

Although China welcomed all these initiatives and offered to build partnerships, the Western initiators focused on the exclusion of China from their initiatives but largely failed to deliver by themselves.

Artificial intelligence is a new recruit on the propaganda front. The US has politicized and weaponized such technology. Washington launched a comprehensive campaign against Huawei and other Chinese companies, and has led the chip ban against China. The US is asking its allies to stop working with China and Chinese companies on AI and its applications.

The militarization of AI has opened new avenues for attacking China, the BRI and Chinese companies. A report by the US Defense Department has played up that China is deploying AI-based machines and AI on the battlefield, while refusing to recognize China's right to development and modernization.

Finally, in recent times, efforts have been accelerated either to entangle China in a conflict or create a web of conflicts in the surroundings of China. The US is busy developing alliances focusing on China, like the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue, or Quad, involving the US, Japan, India and Australia, and military base arrangements with the Philippines.

However, the increasingly welcoming hands for the BRI across the globe demonstrate people's wishes and the trends of development that call for stopping anti-BRI or anti-China propaganda. The world needs more public goods such as the BRI and solutions to common problems, not the creation of more problems. Thus, it is advised that big powers should try to create avenues of cooperation and avoid confrontation.

The author is CEO of the Asian Institute of Eco-civilization Research and Development in Pakistan and author of China in New Era: Community With Shared Future. The views do not necessarily reflect those of China Daily.