Politburo member Wang Yi’s postmortem on President Xi Jinping’s April 14-18 visit to Southeast Asia captured a core message – “at this moment of crisis, the world yearns for stability and direction, with neighboring countries expecting China to demonstrate leadership and provide certainty.” Just days before his departure, China convened a rare Central Conference on Work Related to Neighboring Countries. Subsequent authoritative commentary in People’s Daily suggested peripheral relations in seventeen countries of the “Indochina peninsula” and Central Asia will now become the highest priority in China’s foreign relations. “For many years,” writes commentator Li Kaisheng, “the United States has been trying to suppress and contain China through its Asian ‘allies,’ pushing a very small number of Asian countries to the forefront of containing China. However, the vast majority of neighboring countries have a clear understanding of this and insist on not taking sides.”. In this analysis, four scholars offer initial assessments of Xi Jinping’s visit and perspectives from China, Vietnam, Malaysia, and Cambodia on whether Beijing’s vision resonates with local realities. Inlaid in these assessments are two broad themes. The Trump administration’s effort to reshape the global trading system and reset overseas security commitments is creating an historic inflection point. Less clear is how far China will be able to capitalize on these dynamics, given these countries’ desire to preserve optionality, if not via ties with Washington, than through a diversification of ties aimed at preserving strategic autonomy.
How Southeast Asia Sees Xi Jinping’s Regional Push Amid U.S.-China Tensions (Li Mingjiang, Le Hong Hiep, Ngeow Chow Bing, Neak Chandarith – Carnegie China)
Related articles
