There have been a lot of american movements lately, and the most striking thing is that the US Congress is making a lot of noise around the $40 billion extra aid bill for Ukraine. However, at the same time as this Ukrainian-related bill, there is also a non-conspicuous summit held in the United States, that is, a special summit between the United States and ASEAN! The Yankees invited the leaders of the 10 ASEAN countries to the United States one by one for a meeting, and let them have a cordial meeting with the current US President Joe Biden.
To be reasonable, the United States still attaches great importance to this summit, according to Biden, this special summit between the United States and ASEAN has opened a "new era". However, what made the ASEAN leaders and the rest of the world's melon-eating masses dumbfounded happened, as the most important measure of this summit, that is, Biden announced in front of the ASEAN leaders: the United States will invest $150 million in ASEAN countries, that is to say, the summit is very high-tone, but the pattern is very small, and with the DISCUSSION of the US Congress on Ukraine's $40 billion, the 150 million US dollars given by the United States is more like sending ASEAN these "flower seeds", which is extremely chilling. So the question is, why did the United States hold this special summit between the United States and ASEAN? Why did you give $150 million now that you did this summit?
(1) Why is the United States holding this special summit between the United States and ASEAN?
The reason why the United States convened this special summit between the United States and ASEAN is actually not complicated, it is the standard Xiangzhuang dance sword, which is intended to be Peigong, and perhaps everyone does not know that ASEAN is our first major trading partner. According to the data disclosed by Li Kuiwen, spokesman of the General Administration of Customs of China and director of the Department of Statistical Analysis, in the first quarter, the mainland's import and export volume to ASEAN reached a staggering 1.35 trillion yuan, an increase of 8.4% year-on-year, accounting for 14.4% of the mainland's total foreign trade value, such data made ASEAN become the mainland's largest trading partner again.
So at this moment, the United States is looking for ASEAN leaders to go to the United States for a meeting, purely to win over ASEAN and deal with China well, after all, the current center of gravity of the United States is in the east of Europe, and there is no way to free up so many forces against China, so they need to co-opt people to deal with China and pave the way for the so-called "return to the Indo-Pacific strategy" of the United States. So in the eyes of the clear-cutters, the nature of the summit was aimed at China, so AFP gave a blatant comment: "The Biden administration, which described China as the biggest international challenger when it took office, is eager to prove that, despite months of concentrating on repelling Russia's 'invasion' of Ukraine, it still has Asia as a priority." ”
Because the anti-China atmosphere at this summit is very strong, but the face of the Americans is not good, so these countries still try to draw a clear line with the Americans. Speaking of ASEAN 10 countries, in fact, it also went to 8 countries, of which the Leader of Myanmar was denied the invitation, and Duterte of the Philippines directly announced that he would not go, after all, the Philippines had just held a general election, and he was also snubbed when he went.
(2) Why did this summit give ASEAN $150 million?
As we all know, ASEAN is basically some developing countries, such as Myanmar, the Philippines and Indonesia, so inviting these countries to the meeting and not giving some assistance is too small. However, the pattern of the Americans is really small, and biden only gave them $150 million to the representatives of the 10 ASEAN countries, which is not harmful, but it is extremely insulting, basically treating these countries as stinky.
So since you look down on ASEAN so much, why invite them to a meeting? The answer is actually not complicated, this time it is not a dinner party, but to knock these ASEAN countries and force them to no longer be neutral. In fact, in the ASEAN countries, except for Singapore, which follows the West and saddles the United States, the rest of the countries are trying to ride the wall, after all, China is the largest trading partner, and the United States is the world's number one power, offending anyone is injured, so ASEAN has been pretending to be stupid.
In this year's RESOLUTION CONDEMNING RUSSIAN AGGRESSION BY THE UN GENERAL ASSEMBLY, countries like Vietnam and Laos abstained from voting, and they did not want to pay any attention to this stubble anyway; the Philippines led by Duterte made it even more clear that it would not sanction Russia; this year, the G20 presidency Indonesia made it even more clear that it would invite Russian Putin to a meeting... In other words, these ASEAN countries are not willing to closely unite with the Americans, so the United States is very angry, so it held this meeting and used $150 million to "humiliate" the ASEAN countries. However, I think ASEAN countries should be no worse, and it is better to have aid than nothing anyway.
(3) Conclusion
All in all, two things can be seen from this absurd special summit between the United States and ASEAN, one is that the decline in the authority of the United States has made money so stingy; the second point is that the Americans have always regarded the mainland as their main opponent, even if it is now caught in the Russo-Ukrainian War, but still do not forget to dig our corners.