The changing global economy, along with rising unilateralism and trade protectionism in certain countries, has led to an unsettling wave of anti-globalization. In sharp contrast, China last year held a series of high-profile events, including a symposium marking the fifth anniversary of the Belt and Road Initiative, the Qingdao Summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, the Beijing Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation and the first China International Import Expo, all demonstrating China's resolve to drive globalization.

Despite the downturn in the international situation, the BRI offers new opportunities to China and expands the country's opening-up efforts on all fronts. Meanwhile, the BRI is a proposal open to all. Since its launch more than five years ago, more than 150 countries and international organizations have signed BRI cooperation agreements with China.

In August last year, at the symposium marking the fifth anniversary of the BRI, President Xi Jinping stressed that the initiative has greatly improved China's trade liberalization and investment facilitation, and expanded market access to inland provinces.

Trade between China and BRI countries exceeded $5 trillion, and Chinese outward direct investment in these countries amounted to $60 billion, creating more than 200,000 local jobs. Many projects have yielded impressive results in boosting local economic development, attesting to the efficient policy coordination under the BRI framework.

The initiative has attracted not only developing countries, but developed economies such as the European Union, the United Kingdom and Japan have also expressed interest in engaging in third-party cooperation with China. This new form of collaboration definitely bodes well for all participants and will surely bring more opportunities to all.

Meanwhile, cooperative projects under the BRI will help all participants tap a massive world market. In fact, China itself is a big market, in terms of not only scale and size, but also potential. With a population of more than 1.3 billion and total bank saving deposits of around 176 trillion yuan ($26 trillion), China is home to the largest middle-income group in the world.The growing Chinese private sector will unleash the pent-up consumption power of the Chinese middle class and affluent millennials. The strength of the Chinese market is the engine for the country's sustainable development. In other words, a dynamic modern market is the icing on the cake for China, which is already thriving on its strengths in productivity, national defense, culture and social governance.

The BRI has instilled great vitality in China's modernization and is bringing new hope to globalization, which is currently suffering major setbacks. These setbacks, however, do not spell the end or reversal of globalization, but herald a tipping point that calls for renewed wisdom and determination to carry globalization into the new era.

Globalization and multipolarization have become increasingly prominent. On the one hand, both the rich world and the developing world have a common yearning for peace and development, which is favorable for pushing ahead with the BRI. On the other, geopolitical conflicts, populism and hegemony will not vanish, and they will challenge the initiative.

To embrace the opportunities and avoid the pitfalls, we need to broaden the appeal of the BRI, telling the world about the wider opening of the market and the community of common destiny that interprets international relations in a brand new way.

The author is chairman of the China Institute for Innovation and Development Strategy. The views do not necessarily reflect those of China Daily.