Ben Blanchard
BEIJING
Reuters
Forty years ago in the chaotic heyday of Chairman Mao Zedong’s Communist fervour, China had one main diplomatic strategy for Southeast Asia–exporting revolution.
Today, spend thrift tourists and cheap electronics have replaced guns and copies of Mao’s Little Red Bookas China’s main exports to the region, and are undoubtedly more popular. And with the United States distracted by Iraq, Iran, the war on terror and NorthKorea,China has quietly raised its profile in the region and become much more assertive, analysts said.
This has caused some unease. Next week, for the first time in 15 years of official dialogue, China will hold a summit in China with leaders of the Association of South East Asian Nations (Asean).
‘‘Relations with Asean have been considered quite a success in Chinese diplomacy,’’ said Joseph Cheng, professor of political science and a China-Asean relations expert at City University of Hong Kong.
‘‘To a large extent, China has managed to reduce the China threat perception in the eyes of Asean countries from the 1970s and 80s to now,’’ he said. It has been busy sending its diplomats and leaders across the region handing out loans, helping build roads and ports from Myanmar to Laos, and promising investment and aid.
China has even funded Cambodian election preparations this year by donating $600,000-worth of equipment, according to the official Xinhua news agency.
When US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice last year skipped a security meeting in Laos at which foreign minsters of every Asean state as well as China, South and North Korea and Australia attended, her absence was very noticeable.
‘‘That really epitomises the US’s downgrading of these regional talking forums, and that of course has left a bit of a space for China to move in and fill in the gap,’’ said Duncan Innes-Ker, a China analyst at the Economist Intelligence Unit.
But this has worried some US allies in the region, like Singapore and Indonesia. China’s decision not to devalue its currency during the 1997 Asian financial crisis earned it plaudits from Asean, while the US-led war on terror was felt in some capitals to be unfairly targeted at Muslims.
‘‘Democracy and human rights proved to be also complicating issues between the US and some Asean nations,’’ Singapore’s ambassador to the United States, Chan Heng Chee, was quoted by the Straits Times as saying earlier this year. ‘‘A further warming up to China and other powers as a result of the discomfort with the US cannot be discounted,’’ Chan said.
Last month, a senior aide to Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono chided the United States for paying too little attention to Southeast Asia, warning Washington that its focus on Iraq and combating terrorism globally had opened a door to China.
Beijing’s diplomats had effectively eased fears that China’s rapid economic rise and growing military might posed a threat to its Southeast Asian neighbours, presidential spokesman and adviser Dino Patti Djalal said in Australia.
Next week’s summit – at which the leaders of Malaysia, Laos, Singapore, Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, Myanmar, Indonesia, Brunei and the Philippines will attend – is likely to focus on setting up a China- Asean free trade zone by 2010. China and Asean have been moving to set up the free trade area since 2002, progressively lowering tariffs on a range of goods, and are now discussing liberalising trade in services. There are several obstacles, not least Asean’s own stalled efforts to improve economic ties among the group.
Asean is China’s fifth largest trading partner, and China Asean’s fourth biggest, according to Chinese figures.
Bilateral trade in the year to July risen more than a fifth, though China ran a trade deficit approaching $20 billion with the group last year as it sucked in minerals, timber and other goods to feed its resource hungry economy.
‘‘China’s cultivation of the region has actually led the Asean region to think of itself a little more as a region,’’ said Joshua Kurlantzick, visiting scholar in the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
‘‘They’ve started to think more seriously about the Asean free trade agreement and think about how the region can integrate economically – which is something the US has wanted themto do for years,’’ he added. (Additional reporting by Paul Eckert in Washington)
Today, spend thrift tourists and cheap electronics have replaced guns and copies of Mao’s Little Red Bookas China’s main exports to the region, and are undoubtedly more popular. And with the United States distracted by Iraq, Iran, the war on terror and NorthKorea,China has quietly raised its profile in the region and become much more assertive, analysts said.
This has caused some unease. Next week, for the first time in 15 years of official dialogue, China will hold a summit in China with leaders of the Association of South East Asian Nations (Asean).
‘‘Relations with Asean have been considered quite a success in Chinese diplomacy,’’ said Joseph Cheng, professor of political science and a China-Asean relations expert at City University of Hong Kong.
‘‘To a large extent, China has managed to reduce the China threat perception in the eyes of Asean countries from the 1970s and 80s to now,’’ he said. It has been busy sending its diplomats and leaders across the region handing out loans, helping build roads and ports from Myanmar to Laos, and promising investment and aid.
China has even funded Cambodian election preparations this year by donating $600,000-worth of equipment, according to the official Xinhua news agency.
When US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice last year skipped a security meeting in Laos at which foreign minsters of every Asean state as well as China, South and North Korea and Australia attended, her absence was very noticeable.
‘‘That really epitomises the US’s downgrading of these regional talking forums, and that of course has left a bit of a space for China to move in and fill in the gap,’’ said Duncan Innes-Ker, a China analyst at the Economist Intelligence Unit.
But this has worried some US allies in the region, like Singapore and Indonesia. China’s decision not to devalue its currency during the 1997 Asian financial crisis earned it plaudits from Asean, while the US-led war on terror was felt in some capitals to be unfairly targeted at Muslims.
‘‘Democracy and human rights proved to be also complicating issues between the US and some Asean nations,’’ Singapore’s ambassador to the United States, Chan Heng Chee, was quoted by the Straits Times as saying earlier this year. ‘‘A further warming up to China and other powers as a result of the discomfort with the US cannot be discounted,’’ Chan said.
Last month, a senior aide to Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono chided the United States for paying too little attention to Southeast Asia, warning Washington that its focus on Iraq and combating terrorism globally had opened a door to China.
Beijing’s diplomats had effectively eased fears that China’s rapid economic rise and growing military might posed a threat to its Southeast Asian neighbours, presidential spokesman and adviser Dino Patti Djalal said in Australia.
Next week’s summit – at which the leaders of Malaysia, Laos, Singapore, Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, Myanmar, Indonesia, Brunei and the Philippines will attend – is likely to focus on setting up a China- Asean free trade zone by 2010. China and Asean have been moving to set up the free trade area since 2002, progressively lowering tariffs on a range of goods, and are now discussing liberalising trade in services. There are several obstacles, not least Asean’s own stalled efforts to improve economic ties among the group.
Asean is China’s fifth largest trading partner, and China Asean’s fourth biggest, according to Chinese figures.
Bilateral trade in the year to July risen more than a fifth, though China ran a trade deficit approaching $20 billion with the group last year as it sucked in minerals, timber and other goods to feed its resource hungry economy.
‘‘China’s cultivation of the region has actually led the Asean region to think of itself a little more as a region,’’ said Joshua Kurlantzick, visiting scholar in the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
‘‘They’ve started to think more seriously about the Asean free trade agreement and think about how the region can integrate economically – which is something the US has wanted themto do for years,’’ he added. (Additional reporting by Paul Eckert in Washington)
1 comment:
Yes, They Also very sucessful in getting away with the most mysterious killing of 1.7 millions Cambodian between 1975 and 1979.
Outstanding China! Congratulation!
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