Southeast Asia not falling for Xi Jinping’s ‘friends’ pitch

Even one of Beijing’s loudest boosters in Southeast Asia was unconvinced by Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s message of good neighbourliness.

Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte is now a critic of China. Picture: AFP

Even one of Beijing’s loudest boosters in Southeast Asia was unconvinced by Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s message of good neighbourliness.

Beijing organised a “special summit” on Monday to mark the 30th anniversary of China’s dialogue relations with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.

“A Chinese proverb has it that ‘distance tests a horse’s strength, and time reveals a person’s integrity’,” Mr Xi said in a keynote video address. “China was, is, and will always be ASEAN’s good neighbour, good friend and good partner.”

The pitch – which included the formal upgrading of China-ASEAN relations to a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership – jarred with China’s aggressive territorial claims in the region.

It was delivered during another flare-up in a long-running dispute between China and The Philippines over a shoal in the South China Sea.

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte – who until recently had promoted warmer relations with China – used the Beijing-organised event to voice his outrage at bullying tactics by China’s coast guard.

“We abhor the recent event in the Ayungin Shoal and view with grave concern other similar developments,” Mr Duterte said. “This does not speak well of the relations between our nations and our partnership.”

Ja Ian Chong, an expert on Chinese foreign policy at the ­National University of Singapore, said Beijing had likely organised the summit in an effort for Mr Xi to chalk up “some success on the foreign policy front”.

“ASEAN is sort of a soft target in general,” he said.

The regional grouping, known for its consensual ­approach, ­includes Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, The Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam.

The speech gave a sunny ­account of China’s relations with a region that Mr Xi said was ­united by “Oriental culture” and “Asian values”.

“Our exchanges are as frequent as those between relatives. We value friendship and credibility. We rejoice together in good times, and help each other out in hard times,” Mr Xi said.

China’s leader said Beijing was ready to donate a further 150 million doses of Covid vaccines and would provide ASEAN countries with $US1.5bn of development assistance over the next three years. Mr Xi said China’s “vast domestic market … will always be open to ASEAN countries”.

He also made a pointed swipe at Australia’s nuclear submarines partnership with the United States and United Kingdom.

“We need to pursue dialogue instead of confrontation, build partnerships instead of alliances, and make concerted efforts to address the various negative factors that might threaten or undermine peace,” Mr Xi said. “China will never seek ­hegemony, still less bully smaller countries.”

Mr Chong said that line had unfortunate echoes in Southeast Asia.

At an ASEAN regional forum in 2010, China’s foreign minister infamously told his Singaporean counterpart: “China is a big country and other countries are small countries and that is just a fact.”

That Chinese official, Yang ­Jiechi, has since been promoted by Mr Xi to the politburo, the party’s 25 most powerful leaders.

China this week announced it would punish Lithuania, a European country with less than three million people, for allowing Taiwan to open a Taiwanese Representative Office in its capital Vilnius. “The Lithuanian government must bear all the ensuing consequences,” China’s foreign ministry spokesman said on Monday.

Beijing pressures countries to only allow Taiwan’s overseas offices to be known as Taipei economic and cultural offices.

“I think it’s probably not lost on close observers of China’s foreign policy that even as it’s talking about not throwing its weight around because of its size, it is punishing Lithuania, a small country,” Mr Chong said.