When the China-Maldives Friendship Bridge opened to the public in August 2018, Fazeel Najeeb — then the Maldives' minister of state for foreign affairs — was not standing on a ceremonial stage.

Instead, he was waiting in line.

Riding his motorcycle, he edged forward alongside thousands of ordinary Maldivians, all eager to experience something their country had never known before — crossing the sea by road.

"It felt really good," recalled Najeeb, who has been serving as the Maldives' ambassador to China since December 2024.

For Najeeb, the bridge represents far more than a shortcut between Male and Hulhumale, home to the country's main international airport.

What once required a ferry journey of up to 30 minutes — sometimes suspended altogether due to rough seas — now takes just 10 minutes by road, he said.

"This bridge has not only significantly enhanced urban connectivity, but also played an important role in supporting economic activity, tourism and social integration, thereby contributing to the Maldives' long-term development and resilience," he said.

Since its opening in 2018, the bridge has seen more than 100 million crossings.

The project traces its origins to September 2014, when President Xi Jinping made a state visit to the Maldives, one of the earliest participants in the China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative.

Built of steel and concrete, the bridge carries meaning beyond engineering — and beyond the Maldives itself.

It reflects a development philosophy that emphasizes connectivity over exclusion, cooperation over confrontation, and shared growth over zero-sum competition, observers said.

At a time when walls are rising and divisions are hardening around the world, China is increasingly defining its international engagement through bridge-building — physical, economic and diplomatic. That vision has long been featured prominently in President Xi's diplomatic language.

In April 2014, during a speech at the College of Europe in Bruges, Belgium, Xi noted that in the Flemish language, Bruges means "bridge".

"A bridge not only makes life more convenient; it could also be a symbol of communication, understanding and friendship," Xi said. He later proposed building four bridges — a bridge of peace, a bridge of growth, a bridge of reform and a bridge of progress of civilization, to forge a China-European Union comprehensive strategic partnership with greater global influence.

At the Boao Forum for Asia Annual Conference 2015, Xi quoted the ancient Chinese philosopher Mencius, saying, "Things are born to be different," and noting that civilizations are unique and none is inherently superior to another. He advocated intercivilizational exchanges to build bridges of friendship among peoples, advance human progress and safeguard world peace.

While welcoming foreign guests attending the G20 Hangzhou Summit in 2016, Xi described the G20 as a bridge of friendship, a bridge of cooperation and a bridge of future, calling for an "innovative, invigorated, interconnected and inclusive" world economy.

Zhou Mi, a researcher at the Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation, said the Belt and Road Initiative is also one of the bridges that represent an open, multitiered and composite network of connectivity, allowing multiple routes of cooperation to intersect and enhancing economic resilience.

China has signed Belt and Road cooperation documents with more than 150 countries and over 30 international organizations. Investment in Belt and Road projects has surpassed $1 trillion, with the number of cooperation projects exceeding 4,000. These figures underscore how connectivity has become a defining feature of China's global engagement, observers noted.

Inclusive connectivity

Beijing's emphasis on inclusive connectivity — through reducing tariffs, lowering nontariff barriers, and promoting trade and investment facilitation — can also be seen as a form of bridge-building, Zhou added.

As some African countries face mounting tariff barriers elsewhere, China will fully implement zero-tariff treatment for 100 percent of taxable imports from 53 African countries that have diplomatic ties with China, starting on May 1, to help Africa access the enormous opportunities of the Chinese market.

Data shows that China's annual imports exceeded 20 trillion yuan ($2.9 trillion) and the nation serves as a major export destination for nearly 80 countries and regions.

Wang Dong, a professor and executive director of the Institute for Global Cooperation and Understanding at Peking University, said that current anti-globalization trends — including decoupling, supply chain disruptions and the creation of "small yards with high fences" — not only violate economic laws and market rules, but also run counter to the common interests of the international community.

"By promoting high-level openness to facilitate high-quality development, China helps weaken zero-sum competition in international relations and enhances the recovery and governance capacity of regions affected by conflicts," Wang said.

Beyond economics, bridges also carry political meaning. In times of heightened tension, observers said, China increasingly treats dialogue itself as a form of connectivity — not merely as rhetoric, but as a diplomatic bridge between divided positions.

Wang said that contemporary conflicts are increasingly complex and transnational, often amplified by polarized narratives, adding that under such conditions, reliance on sanctions, coercion or military means tends to intensify security dilemmas and lock parties into prolonged confrontation.

Dialogue emphasized

Dialogue does not dissolve differences, observers noted, but like a bridge spanning two distant shores, it makes engagement possible where isolation would only deepen mistrust — allowing disagreements to be managed rather than magnified.

This bridge-building approach can be seen in China's recent diplomatic efforts to help defuse tensions surrounding Iran by strengthening communication with relevant parties and sending a special envoy to the region at a time when preventing a wider regional spillover has become increasingly urgent.

Foreign Minister Wang Yi has held more than 10 phone calls with his counterparts from countries that are directly involved in the conflict or are countries in the region or major powers, stressing that military force is not the solution and armed conflicts will only breed new hatred.

From facilitating reconciliation between Saudi Arabia and Iran in 2023, to hosting the signing of the Beijing Declaration by 14 Palestinian factions in 2024, and conducting shuttle diplomacy following renewed tensions along the Cambodia-Thailand border last year, China has sought to act as a connector and focused on rebuilding channels of communication where dialogue had collapsed.

Rooted in the traditional Chinese cultural belief that "harmony is most precious", China emphasizes dialogue and mutual understanding rather than imposing outcomes, said Cui Shoujun, a professor at Renmin University of China.

The establishment of the International Organization for Mediation last year reflects this distinctly Chinese approach to conflict resolution, Cui said, adding that by bringing parties in a dispute together and creating space for communication, mediation helps to build trust and bridge divisions.