A street view in Sao Paulo, Brazil, on July 6, 2026 Photo: VCG

In recent years, China's continued push for opening-up and international cooperation has become a strategic response to a fragmenting global economy. Trade, investment and infrastructure are no longer shaped by cost efficiency alone; they are increasingly driven by resilience, security and long-term strategic positioning.

The China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) fits into this broader transformation of the global economy. It connects China's industrial capabilities with the asset base of other regions, including energy, minerals and logistics corridors. In doing so, it helps integrate different types of comparative advantages across countries.

There is both a parallel and a contrast with the framework I have been developing in the context of Brazil's strategy. That framework emphasizes the transformation of structural endowments into dynamic comparative advantages, particularly in clean energy, natural capital and low-carbon industrial ecosystems. Countries such as Brazil benefit from abundant renewable energy, land, water and biodiversity, which can be industrialized through what we call "powershoring."

China's situation is different. It does not have the same natural endowments in land, water or low-cost renewable energy at scale. But China has built industrial, technological and organizational capabilities that allow it to compensate for these constraints. In this sense, China is pursuing a complementary strategy. Rather than relying primarily on natural assets, it is leveraging manufacturing scale, innovation capacity and infrastructure ecosystems to position itself at the core of emerging value chains, particularly in green technologies.

The BRI can therefore be seen as part of this broader logic. It creates the possibility of a mutually reinforcing model, where countries with natural assets, such as Brazil or parts of Africa, and countries with industrial capacity, such as China, co-develop value chains linked to the energy transition.

Luiz Awazu Pereira da Silva Photo: Courtesy of Luiz Awazu Pereira da Silva

China's deepening cooperation with regions such as Latin America and Africa is particularly important in this respect. These partnerships can unlock significant opportunities in renewable energy, critical minerals, sustainable agriculture and infrastructure. 

There are also challenges and open questions, but China has made remarkable progress in renewable energy, electrification and green technologies. The fundamental question is whether China can steadily move toward aligning its growth model with the logic of dynamic comparative advantage in a decarbonizing world. This would require not only technological leadership, but also a deeper shift in energy systems, resource use and global investment patterns. China is clearly moving in that direction.

Overall, China's opening-up strategy positions it as a central node in a more investment-driven and multipolar global economy, where different regions contribute their distinct assets to global value chains. The strength of this model lies in whether the complementarities between industrial capabilities and natural endowments can be translated into sustainable, balanced and mutually beneficial forms of integration.

BRI cooperation also points to China's broader role in the global economy. As the world moves away from a single center of gravity toward a more multipolar system, major emerging economies such as China have an increasingly central role to play in shaping a more resilient, diversified and inclusive global economic architecture. If well managed, this shift can enhance stability by reducing concentration risks and broadening access to finance, investment and policy options.

The guiding principle should be cooperation while maintaining independence and mutual benefit. Countries in Latin America, Africa and Asia are not seeking to replace one form of dependence with another. They are seeking to expand their strategic autonomy by engaging with multiple partners. 

The relationship between China and regions such as Latin America illustrates this potential. Latin America brings natural assets and emerging competitive advantages, including clean energy, agriculture, biodiversity and critical minerals. China brings industrial capacity, technology, financing and scale. The opportunity is to move beyond a commodity-based model toward co-investment in industrial ecosystems, including renewable energy, sustainable agriculture, electric mobility, critical minerals processing and the bioeconomy. Such cooperation can generate productivity gains, better jobs and technological upgrading on both sides.
 
Multilateral development banks also have an essential complementary role. Institutions such as the World Bank and the Inter-American Development Bank, along with newer actors such as the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank and the New Development Bank, can work alongside China's initiatives to provide risk-sharing mechanisms, co-financing platforms and common standards. The objective should be to move toward a more balanced and cooperative financial architecture, rather than replicate a traditional system dominated by a narrow group of advanced economies.

A more diversified and development-oriented system would combine China's capacity to mobilize investment and build infrastructure at scale, the role of multilateral development banks in risk mitigation, governance and coordination, and reforms to global financial practices that allow capital to flow more efficiently toward productive investment in emerging and developing economies.

Ultimately, the success of this emerging architecture will depend on whether it can deliver credible win-win outcomes: supporting growth, reducing vulnerabilities and strengthening domestic capabilities while preserving national policy space. If cooperation is structured around mutual benefit, co-investment and respect for independence, it can become a cornerstone of a more stable, inclusive and resilient global economic order.

The author is former deputy general manager of the Bank for International Settlements, and former deputy governor of the Central Bank of Brazil.