(TibetanReview.net, Nov01, 2018) – China has on Oct 31 vowed to make its World Buddhist Forum the most influential mechanism for Buddhist exchanges and to use it to promote the country’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) for extending its infrastructure-based dominion across the globe.
A remark to this effect was made by Wang Zuo’an, head of the China Religious Culture Communication Association, at the conclusion of China’s fifth World Buddhist Forum in the city of Putian, east China’s Fujian Province. The forum vowed to promote Buddhist interactions and cultural relics protection, reported China’s official Xinhua news agency Oct 31.
The report reiterated that a record number of about 1,000 Buddhists, scholars and representatives from 55 countries and regions attended the three-day event, which was organized by the Chinese government through the Buddhist Association of China and China Religious Culture Communication Association as joint hosts.
The report cited Wang as saying the participants vowed to continue to develop the forum into the most influential mechanism for Buddhist exchanges, so as to spread the voice of Buddhism in the world.
The report added that proposals were made in a declaration at the conclusion of the forum for promoting the Buddhist spirits of peace and philanthropy, protecting the world’s Buddhist cultural relics and enhancing people-to-people interactions along the Belt and Road, among other things.
Several of the BRI countries have recently decided to relook, scale back, or altogether cancel a number of China-funded infrastructure projects following changes of government amid fears of debt-trap and allegations of grandiosity and large-scale corruption.
