China-ASEAN cooperation will continue to build a highland for the development of peaceful oases

Jie Zhang is a special researcher at the Research Center of Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences

On November 22, the 30th Anniversary Summit of China-ASEAN Dialogue Relations was held, and President Xi Jinping and ASEAN leaders officially announced the establishment of a China-ASEAN comprehensive strategic partnership. This is a new milestone in the history of bilateral relations, which draws a blueprint and points out the direction for the next 30 years of China-ASEAN cooperation, and will also help China-ASEAN relations continue to play a leading role in regional cooperation and inject new impetus into world peace, stability, prosperity and development.

30 years of win-win cooperation have borne fruitful results

In July 1991, Qian Qichen, then Chinese Foreign Minister, attended the 24th ASEAN Foreign Ministers' Meeting for the first time and proposed to conduct dialogue with ASEAN, which responded positively. At this point, the dialogue process between China and ASEAN has officially begun.

Over the past 30 years, political and security mutual trust between China and ASEAN has been strengthened, connectivity has been accelerating, economic integration has continued to deepen, and people-to-people exchanges have become increasingly close. A set of data vividly reflects the strong resilience and great vitality of the cooperation between the two sides. According to statistics, in the past 30 years, the bilateral trade volume between China and ASEAN has expanded by 85 times. From US$8.36 billion in 1991 to US$685.28 billion in 2020, with a total bilateral investment of more than US$310 billion and cooperation in the construction of more than 20 economic and trade cooperation zones, China and ASEAN are each other's largest trading partners in 2020; in 2019, the two sides have more than 65 million personnel exchanges, with nearly 4,500 flights between China and Southeast Asia every week; the two sides have exchanged more than 200,000 students and formed more than 200 pairs of sister cities... Practice has proved that China-ASEAN dialogue relations are the most successful, dynamic and substantive model of cooperation in the Asia-Pacific region.

Provide an important reference for regional development

President Xi Jinping pointed out in his important speech at the summit that the achievements of China-ASEAN cooperation in the past 30 years have benefited from the unique conditions of geographical proximity and cultural ties between the two sides, and it is inseparable from us to actively conform to the development trend of the times and make correct historical choices. The first is mutual respect and adherence to the basic norms governing international relations. The second is win-win cooperation and take the road of peaceful development. The third is to watch out for each other and practice the concept of sincerity and benevolence. The fourth is to tolerate and learn from each other and jointly build an open regionalism. The valuable experience of 30 years is the common wealth of China and ASEAN, which has laid the foundation and provided guidance for the development of a comprehensive strategic partnership between the two sides.

Among these experiences, it is impressive to be on the lookout for each other and to be sincere and accommodating. In the past 30 years, through jointly responding to major challenges such as the Asian financial crisis, the international financial crisis and the COVID-19 pandemic, China and ASEAN have trusted each other and shared hardships and hardships, formed a unique "crisis-type" cooperation model, cultivated a consensus on cooperation, and established a cooperation mechanism, thus providing institutional support for the continuous expansion, deepening and sustainability of the bilateral cooperation agenda, and also achieving the leading position of China and ASEAN in regional cooperation.

For example, after the outbreak of the new crown pneumonia epidemic, China and ASEAN were the first to hold high-level diplomatic dialogues, quickly formed a joint prevention and control mechanism, and continued to take anti-epidemic cooperation and post-epidemic economic recovery as the main agenda of regional governance. During this period, the two sides relied on existing cooperation mechanisms in various fields, such as "10+1" and "10+3", the ASEAN Humanitarian Relief Coordination Center, and the ASEAN Public Health Emergency Action Center Network, making the region a bright spot in the global fight against the epidemic. Since then, China has successively put forward a number of proposals such as the "China-ASEAN Public Health Cooperation Initiative". Just during the summit, President Xi Jinping announced that China is willing to launch the "China-ASEAN Health Shield" cooperation initiative: including providing another 150 million doses of free assistance for COVID-19 vaccines to ASEAN countries to help regional countries improve vaccination rates; adding AN ADDITIONAL US$5 million to the ASEAN Anti-epidemic Fund, increasing joint production and technology transfer of vaccines, carrying out cooperation in key drug research and development, and improving the level of ASEAN's independent guarantee; helping ASEAN strengthen the construction of grass-roots public health systems and talent training, and improving its ability to respond to major public health emergencies.

Turning "crisis" into "opportunity" stems from the awareness of connecting mountains and rivers and sharing fate, and from the concept of watching out for each other and helping each other, sincerity and benevolence. Turning "crisis" into "opportunity" to continuously consolidate China-ASEAN strategic mutual trust, promote the construction of cooperation mechanisms, and make bilateral cooperation stable and far-reaching. Similarly, such a cooperation process, mechanism construction, and accumulation of experience are embodied in the traditional security field and in the extensive and continuous integration of regional economic cooperation between the two sides, which has important regional significance.

At present, the world is experiencing major changes unprecedented in a century, with unstable and uncertain factors increasing, and the international order and global governance system being impacted. At the regional level, the United States, Japan, Australia and India introduced the "Indo-Pacific" plan to try to work together to contain China and maintain the regional dominance of the United States. This has significantly increased ASEAN's strategic anxiety, put ASEAN under pressure to choose sides, and weakened ASEAN's central position and unity in the regional architecture.

In the face of the intensification of the regional order game, the experience of China-ASEAN cooperation is of leading and exemplary significance for promoting regional cooperation and building a regional order. Because China and ASEAN agree with the concept of equal treatment, harmony and coexistence, win-win cooperation and peaceful development, and support the joint construction of an open, cooperative and inclusive regional order. China supports ASEAN's position as the center of the regional architecture. Since 1991, China has successively joined and participated in promoting all regional multilateral processes with ASEAN as the institutional center, including the ASEAN Regional Forum, ASEAN-China-Japan-ROK cooperation, the East Asia Summit, and the ASEAN Defense Ministers' Enlargement Meeting. Through these practices, China has gradually shifted from initially being cautious about participating in regional mechanisms to actively promoting and actively shaping. This remarkable change in China's foreign policy has strengthened the belief of regional countries in adhering to multilateralism and not seeking dominance in regional cooperation.

The valuable experience of China-ASEAN cooperation over the past 30 years, as well as the four "unswerving" proposed by President Xi Jinping in his important speech, that is, China will unswervingly take ASEAN as the priority direction of peripheral diplomacy, unswervingly support ASEAN unity and the construction of the ASEAN community, unswervingly support ASEAN's central position in the regional architecture, and unswervingly support ASEAN to play a greater role in regional and international affairs. It will provide solutions, paths and options for the construction of order in the Asia-Pacific region.

In the spirit of "homeland", we will jointly build the prospects for China-ASEAN cooperation

For the future China-ASEAN relations, President Xi Jinping used the positioning of jointly building five homes in his speech, namely, jointly building a peaceful homeland, a peaceful homeland, a prosperous homeland, a beautiful homeland, and a friendly homeland. The "homeland" embodies the geographical characteristics of China and ASEAN connecting mountains and rivers, and also embodies the characteristics of peace, tranquility, prosperity, beauty and friendly relations between China and ASEAN, indicating that China regards ASEAN as a family and relative, and relatives must often come and go, attach great importance to love and righteousness, stress faith and righteousness, celebrate happy events, and help each other in difficulties.

This kind of help is real, it is done one thing at a time, which is reflected in a series of new initiatives put forward by China: China launched the "China-ASEAN Health Shield" initiative; China will provide US$1.5 billion in development assistance to ASEAN in the next three years to support the establishment of a China-ASEAN development knowledge network; it is recommended to start the construction of China-ASEAN Free Trade Area Version 3.0 as soon as possible, improve the level of trade and investment liberalization and facilitation, expand cooperation in new fields such as digital economy and green economy, and jointly build demonstration parks for economic and trade innovation and development Launched the Science and Technology Innovation Enhancement Program, provided 1,000 advanced and applicable technologies to ASEAN, and supported 300 young ASEAN scientists to come to China for exchanges in the next five years. These specific projects and precise figures reflect the sincerity of China and ASEAN in building a homeland, and reflect the all-round, wide-ranging and deep-seated characteristics of China-ASEAN cooperation.

The future is far away, and the future can be expected. The 30th anniversary is a new opportunity for the development of China-ASEAN dialogue relations and a starting point for the two sides to usher in a new era of cooperation. The closer construction of a China-ASEAN community of common destiny will lead the region to continue to become an oasis of peace and a highland of development.

Guangming Daily (November 23, 2021, 12th edition)

Source: Guangming Network - Guangming Daily