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China has upped the ante in its fight with the United States in Southeast Asia, underscoring regional neighbors’ concerns about a new Washington-led Indo-Pacific security grouping, while promising to strengthen trade ties and anti-pandemic cooperation.
During a charming offensive to five Southeast Asian countries this week, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi boosted post-coronavirus economic cooperation, pledged to provide Covid-19 vaccines to Malaysia and Laos, and signed an agreement to free trade with Cambodia, one of the countries of China. closest allies. In Bangkok, he offered support to the beleaguered Thai government, which has recently come under fire from student-led protests.
During his visits, Yi repeatedly described Washington and its Indo-Pacific strategy as “a major security risk” for Asia. During a stopover in Kuala Lumpur on Tuesday, he criticized the so-called Quad, the US-led strategic bloc with Japan, India and Australia, as an “Indo-Pacific NATO.”
In an interview with Xinhua on Friday, Wang again tried to tap into fears among the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations that the body’s pivotal role in regional affairs could be challenged by the US-led security initiative. addressed to Beijing.
“[The aim of the Quad] it is to proclaim the antiquated mentality of the Cold War to provoke the confrontation between different groups and blocs and to fuel geopolitical competition, in an attempt to maintain the dominance and hegemonic system of the United States, “he said.
“It will undoubtedly damage the centrality of ASEAN and undermine regional peace and stability, contravening the long-term common interests of the countries of the region.”
Wang’s tour came as the United States stepped up its efforts to attract countries in a bid to build an international coalition to counter China’s growing influence in the region amid tensions over the South China Sea.
Washington unveiled a new partnership last month with five Southeast Asian countries along the Mekong River, seeking to alienate Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam from China with economic aid and other forms of aid.
While Southeast Asian nations have generally welcomed Washington’s turn in the region and its regional security role as tensions have soared between China and the US in the South China Sea, they are more cautious when it comes to the Quad, which Beijing has called a front-line anti-China.
Asean unveiled its official stance on Washington’s Indo-Pacific strategy in June, highlighting suspicions and concerns among member countries that a new US-led multilateral group with key regional partners may threaten Asean’s central role. in Southeast Asia and eventually eclipse the grouping of 10 smaller nations. .
In response, Wang warned countries in the region to be vigilant about the United States’ “dangerous” strategy to stoke tensions and called on China’s neighbors to work with Beijing to eliminate “external disruption” in the disputed Sea of South China.
He said that China’s position that “the South China Sea should not become a sea for great powers to play or for gunboats to invade in the face of foreign forces causing trouble and creating tension” was generally recognized by countries. from the region, according to Xinhua.
Wang’s comments came as Japan’s new prime minister, Yoshihide Suga, was set to embark on his first overseas trip since Sunday to Vietnam, the current president of ASEAN, and Indonesia, Southeast Asia’s largest economy. .
Analysts say Wang and Suga’s travels illustrate the importance of Southeast Asia in the superpower rivalry between China and the United States and their allies.
“Southeast Asia is the focal point of the growing geopolitical rivalry,” said Xu Liping, an expert with the Institute of Asia-Pacific Studies of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.
“China has to react and respond when the United States tries to put countries in its orbit, a move aimed at diluting Asean’s central role in regional architecture,” he said, adding that China had no ambitions to pursue dominance or another agenda. geopolitics.
As China and the United States battle for regional influence, the Asean countries would inevitably find themselves in a dilemma that would make it difficult for them to reach a consensus on how to deal with an increasingly assertive Beijing, Xu said.
Furthermore, although Asean has become China’s main trading partner this year amid growing interdependence, Japan remains one of the region’s top investors and economic partners, he said.
According to Kuni Miyake, a former Japanese diplomat and special adviser to Suga’s cabinet, both Vietnam and Indonesia are key targets for the United States to strengthen security cooperation and defense ties in the region, which partly explains the plans to trip of the new prime minister.
“The timing of Suga’s visit is perfect,” he said in a Japanese Times newspaper article on Thursday, considering Japan’s desire to “strengthen ties with countries in the region amid growing tensions between its main security ally. , United States, and your country “. largest trading partner, China. “
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