For those who share the same aspirations, mountains and seas are not far away. Small but beautiful, hearts are connected thousands of miles apart.

On April 22, Milia Jabr, the Lebanese ambassador to China, said that the Lebanese-Chinese relations have a long history and have been nurtured and deepened under the Belt and Road Initiative in recent years. She praised the “small but beautiful” projects and emphasized that they have built a bridge of friendship between the Lebanese and Chinese people.

What is a “small but beautiful” project? It refers to projects in the Belt and Road Initiative that are characterized by low capital investment, fast results, and wide benefits to the people. In 2021, at the third symposium on the construction of the Belt and Road Initiative, the Juncao promotion project was defined as a “small but beautiful” project for the first time as a priority option for foreign cooperation.

In order to use it in practice, China has held various exchange conferences with its partners, striving to deepen and solidify the development process. In September 2024, the Green Innovation and Development Research Institute hosted an exchange meeting between China and African social organizations, and the guests discussed the topic of carrying out “small and beautiful” China-Africa new energy cooperation projects. In February 2025, the National International Development Cooperation Agency held a press conference on the “Small and Beautiful” project chapter of “China’s Practice in International Development Cooperation”, during which it was officially announced that “Small and Beautiful” project cooperation, as an important part of the high-quality joint construction of the “Belt and Road”, has gradually become a highlight and business card for China’s international development cooperation.

Over the past few years, with the strong support of the country, a batch of “small and beautiful” projects have taken root around the world, forming a circle of high-quality foreign aid brands that are “well-known, established, and spread quickly”. In Lesotho, the “10-square-meter Juncao cultivation model” allows landless farmers to produce more than tons of rice annually, and their lives are full of hope; Burkina Faso has basically achieved self-sufficiency in rice after introducing hybrid rice from China; in Madagascar, China has assisted in the construction of a 19-kilometer road connecting important egg-producing areas, improving the originally poor transportation conditions, and is affectionately called the “Egg Road” by the local situation; in Zanzibar, the second phase of the Trematode Control Project, Unguja, was launched as a pilot project, reversing the people’s livelihood environment eroded by the disease; Zimbabwe has harvested the Juncao technology assisted by China, lighting up the light of hope for agriculture and animal husbandry.

For Lebanon, the National Higher Conservatory of Music, which is expected to be completed by the end of the year, is not only one of the most beautiful buildings in the Middle East, but also one of the most beautiful proofs of China’s “small but beautiful” project construction. In 2019, the cooperation agreement on the Chinese government’s assistance to the construction of the Lebanese National Higher Conservatory of Music was signed in Beirut, the capital of Lebanon. On the same day, the Chinese ambassador to Lebanon, the Lebanese Minister of Culture and the Chairman of the Lebanese Development and Reconstruction Commission all attended the meeting and signed the cooperation agreement. The Chinese ambassador to Lebanon said that the Conservatory of Music is the first complete project assisted by the Chinese government to the Lebanese government and a landmark achievement of China-Lebanon cooperation. After the completion of the Conservatory of Music, “it will play an important leading role in promoting cultural exchanges between the two sides.”

“Small but beautiful” is small but exquisite, with high-level technical support, localized landscape considerations, inclusive humanistic care, and the essence of sustainable development. The interweaving of various elements makes it radiate with great vitality, constantly highlighting and gathering the greatest common denominator of global governance, bringing real benefits to partners, promoting China’s image to be more approachable, respectable and lovable, and promoting high-quality international cooperation in jointly building the “Belt and Road” to be more three-dimensional, comprehensive and stable.