Recently, the 5th Belt and Road Initiative Simulation Competition was held at the University of Reading in the United Kingdom. The competition was jointly organized by the Foundation for Law and International Affairs (FLIA) and the University of Reading School of Law. The Ocean University of China (OUC) team comprised Wei Jiawen from the 2023 cohort, Zhao Jiayi and Zhang Ailin from the 2024 cohort of the Sino-Foreign Cooperative Education Program in Law; Ding Ruoshui, Xiao Rui, and Tian Yuchen from the 2025 cohort of the Foreign-Related Rule of Law Program, all from the School of Law; and Wang Yiduo from the 2025 cohort of the Accounting (ACCA) Program in the College of Management. The team won the Bronze Award in the team category, while team captain Zhao Jiayi also received the Diplomacy Award. This represents OUC’s best-ever performance in the competition.
Responding to the growing trend toward multi-stakeholder, multi-issue, and cross-sectoral international cooperation, the Belt and Road Initiative Simulation Competition recreates complex, real-world scenarios involving competing international interests. Through these simulations, it encourages students to shift from unilateral advocacy to multi-party negotiation and to learn how to listen and communicate, weigh competing interests and make compromises, build consensus, and ultimately achieve mutually beneficial cooperation.
This year’s competition used the Freshippo Village Project in Uganda as its case study. Negotiations covered issues including the project’s investment and ownership structure, supply-chain management, pricing mechanisms, local employment and economic impact, institutional cooperation, standards and certification, and environmental sustainability. Working within a defined factual scenario and under specific interest constraints, participants were required to represent different stakeholders and negotiate feasible cooperative solutions. The competiton brought together eight teams comprising more than 50 students from 13 universities across China, the United Kingdom, and Ireland.
In recent years, through its “OCEANS TO GLOBAL” Undergraduate Global Competence Advancement Initiative, OUC has developed a student development pathway that combines intellectual enrichment through general education, professional development through disciplinary learning, and competence building through practical training. Guided by the principle of “Valuing Scholarship and Serving the Nation through Ocean Development,” the university has continued to strengthen students’ awareness of and engagement with global issues. All members of this year’s team were students enrolled in the university’s general education courses “Global Competence Development” and “International Debate.”
