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South China morning post
‘Let’s build a digital Silk Road’: Xi Jinping seeks to consolidate China’s ties with ASEAN
Chinese President Xi Jinping has pledged to further deepen cooperation and promote a “digital Silk Road” with Southeast Asia as Beijing moves forward to cement its influence in the Asia-Pacific region. In a message recorded on Friday, Xi also sought to assure Asian leaders that China placed top priority on its relationship with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), a 10-member regional bloc, and that as the only economy important in growth, China would continue with its opening strategy to boost the global recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic, a measure that would benefit ASEAN. Get the latest insights and analysis from our Global Impact newsletter on the great stories from China. “China will unwaveringly expand its openness to the outside world, enhancing its national and international economic ties and promoting the world’s common recovery through its own recovery, from which all countries of the world, including Asean, will benefit,” Xi said. via the video link to the participants in the China-Asean Exhibition in Nanning City, Southwest China. ” Looking ahead, there will be even more room for cooperation between China and Asean. ” Xi’s comments came just two days after US President-elect Joe Biden announced that his foreign policy agenda would see the United States reprise its global leadership role and strengthen its alliances in Asia-Pacific. In another sign that Beijing is stepping up engagement with its neighbors, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi concluded his trip to key allies the United States, Japan and South Korea, and vowed that China would join the two nations to reactivate their economies affected by the pandemic. who is the first Chinese president to give a keynote speech since the China-Asean Exhibition was established in 2004, said at the summit that while the world is facing instability and uncertainty due to the rise of ism and protectionism, China she had made her relationship with Asean a priority. China will assess new prospects for relations with Japan when Wang Yi meets with Prime Minister Suga “China regards Asean as a priority in its neighborhood diplomacy and a key area for high-quality joint construction of the Strip Initiative and the Route, “Xi said, referring to one of his favorite projects to develop trade, investment and infrastructure along the ancient sea and land silk routes.”[China] supports Asean’s central position in East Asian cooperation and supports Asean to play a greater role in building an open and inclusive regional architecture, “Xi said, adding that China” will actively consider “the need. of the Asean Covid-19 vaccines. Xi also said that China would continue to cooperate with ASEAN countries in the next five years in various areas, including infrastructure and public health, and “would positively consider the needs of the countries of the ASEAN “when the vaccines are ready. China may cut belt and road loans to ensure the future of the project. Specifically, Xi said China could work with ASEAN countries to establish a” China-ASEAN digital port to promote digital connectivity and building a ‘digital Silk Road’. “Beijing has sought closer ties with Asean, a regional grouping of Brunei, Cambodia, Indone sia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam, to try to offset the pressure of the protracted trade war launched by US President Donald Trump in 2018, the 10-member bloc surpassed the The European Union as China’s largest trading partner, having also overtaken the United States last year amid trade frictions between the world’s largest economies. In what Beijing touted as a historic milestone in its economic integration with the region, China and the 10 ASEAN countries, as well as Japan, South Korea, New Zealand and Australia, joined the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) , the world’s largest free trade bloc, formerly. The trade pact, which would see significant tariff cuts between member states in the next decade, could further expand China’s economic influence in Asia-Pacific and counter pressure from economic dissociation between China and the United States. of the RCEP, which covers about 30 percent of the world’s population and gross domestic product, and said that more measures were expected to facilitate regional travel and freight transport when pandemic conditions improved. South China Sea: The dispute that could start a military conflict Shi Yinhong, a professor of international relations at Renmin University in Beijing, said the need for China to improve ties with ASEAN and its member states has become more urgent to As political, security and ideological tensions have increased with advanced countries. However, the persistent disputes over southern China. The sea remains a major problem between Beijing and the ASEAN ocean countries, Shi said. “There is no change in its positions on the South China Sea. The United States has great influence in some oceanic ASEAN countries, although they also know that it is unrealistic for a high-tech decoupling with China,” he said. ” The future of China-ASEAN relations will be influenced by Biden’s policy on the South China Sea. He added that ASEAN members varied in their acceptance of Beijing’s digital Silk Road proposal. Wang Huiyao, director of the Center for China and Globalization, said that cooperation in the digital economy was an extension of the growing economic engagement between ASEAN and China. He also said that Biden’s return to multilateralism would open more channels for dialogue between China and the United States, and that bilateral relations are expected to follow the path of “cooperative competition.” Additional report by Wendy Wu More from South China Morning Post : * The United States and Taiwan promote alternatives to the China Belt and Road Initiative * Asean prepares for the Trump administration’s farewell shot in China * South China Sea: China asks Asean for a speedy resolution of the China code * Asean can help avoid the South China Sea conflict amid a ‘superpower rivalry’, says the Philippine defense minister. The South China Morning Post download our mobile app. Copyright 2020.
