Text/Fat guy eggplant
According to a report by Huanqiu.com on April 4, at the invitation of the Chinese side, Her Royal Highness Maha Chakri Sirindhorn, an "old friend of the Chinese people" and Princess of the Kingdom of Thailand, visited China. She is expected to stay in China for about six days, and in addition to visiting Beijing, she will also travel to China's Sichuan Province for friendly exchanges and dialogues.
She will also become the fifth important high-level figure from an ASEAN country to visit China in recent times.
(Her Royal Highness Princess Sirindhorn of Thailand)
It is reported that in recent times, high-level figures from ASEAN countries have been visiting China almost "in a group" - only this week, three foreign ministers from Timor-Leste, Bendito dos Santos Freitas, Sharonxay from Laos and Bui Thanh Son from Vietnam, visited Beijing almost simultaneously, and are expected to have in-depth exchanges and dialogues with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi.
Earlier than these foreign ministers came was Indonesia's president-elect Prabowo Subianto, who had won the election earlier. Although he has not yet officially taken office, he has made an official visit to China a few days ago and selected China as his first foreign visit country after his victory, which shows how much importance the new Indonesian president attaches to China.
(Prabowo Subianto visited China for the first time)
Considering that the Philippines under the leadership of Marcos Jr. has repeatedly confronted China on the South China Sea issue, and has even repeatedly violated China and threatened China's national sovereignty, coupled with the United States "fanning the flames" behind the scenes, the current situation in the South China Sea can be said to be extremely tense. China's warning signals are getting stronger day by day, and there is speculation that the situation in the South China Sea is about to usher in major changes, which is not good news for the Philippines and its allies.
(Marcos Jr. listens to Biden's teachings)
The Philippines, which knows that its strength is limited, has been trying to win over Vietnam and other parties to the South China Sea issue and other ASEAN countries to "put pressure" on China, but these ASEAN countries are now choosing to visit China in a "bunch" - this clearly wants to draw a line with the Philippines and is unwilling to follow the Philippines to challenge China's bottom line. In particular, on the eve of its foreign minister's visit to China, Vietnam issued a statement on the South China Sea issue, saying that Vietnam remains neutral on the situation in the South China Sea, calling on all parties to exercise restraint, and completely distancing itself from the South China Sea dispute between China and the Philippines.
(The South China Sea dispute has made the situation in the South China Sea very tense)
In the face of rising tensions in the South China Sea, more and more ASEAN countries are showing increasingly pro-China tendencies, which seems to mean that ASEAN's relations with China are getting better and better – of course, there is no such thing as a free lunch, and these countries themselves have their own small calculations.
Needless to say, the security cooperation between Thailand and China is now being built by China, the largest power infrastructure construction project in Timor-Leste is now being built by China, the Laos cross-border railway built by China has brought huge economic development opportunities to Laos, and China has also kindly allowed Laos to delay debt payments, and Vietnam and China are also constantly exploring new strategic relations, especially the development of semiconductors, rare earths and other industries with China's support......
(Vietnamese delegation visits China)
It is not difficult to see that with the continuous rise of China's regional influence, the ASEAN countries represented by Vietnam, Indonesia and Thailand are constantly choosing to move closer to China and take advantage of China's economic development to develop their own economic strength, which can be said to be a win-win situation for both sides. Under such circumstances, it may be difficult for the United States and the Philippines to get the full support of ASEAN countries on the South China Sea issue, and they may even fall into the embarrassing situation of passivity and isolation.
(ASEAN Meeting)
However, it is important to note that this does not mean that ASEAN is fully tilting towards China. In fact, in the poll data released by the Center for ASEAN Studies of the Yusof Isa Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, 50.5% of ASEAN people choose to support China in the binary confrontation, and 49.5% choose to support the United States. Clearly, China's approval rating among the ASEAN people has not yet reached the point of "absolute advantage", and ASEAN countries may be more willing to choose a neutral position in the US-China competition to avoid being drawn into the conflict. Of course, with China's growing strength, I believe that in the future, more and more people will see the essence of the United States and choose to support China.