A few days ago, Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Sun Weidong led a delegation to Jakarta, Indonesia to attend the 30th ASEAN-China Senior Officials' Consultation. China is full of expectations for this meeting, hoping to further promote relations and cooperation with ASEAN and build a closer China-ASEAN community with a shared future.
What is even more gratifying is that the relationship between China and ASEAN is also steadily moving in the direction we want, and the two sides have been each other's largest trading partners for four consecutive years. According to a survey by the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies in Singapore, more than half of Southeast Asian residents would choose China over the United States if ASEAN countries were forced to take sides between China and the United States.
Moreover, the relationship between China and ASEAN has been widely recognized. Russia's permanent representative to ASEAN said that China's growing influence in ASEAN and its growing importance as an investment and trading partner have made it difficult for the United States to match.
The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) is a signboard of China, such as the Jakarta-Bandung high-speed railway in Indonesia and the China-Laos railway.
【The 29th ASEAN-China Senior Officials' Consultation】
Although the United States has also made a lot of commitments to ASEAN, these commitments often have many strings attached. In line with the goals of confrontation between the United States and China and the establishment of a hegemonic system in the Asia-Pacific region, these conditions are often inconsistent with ASEAN's concept of maintaining neutrality and non-alignment and seeking peaceful development.
Moreover, compared with the equal cooperation between China and ASEAN, the United States prefers to put on the "big brother" shelf and demand that ASEAN act according to the ideas of the United States, which is one of the reasons why ASEAN's favorability towards the United States has continued to decline, and no one likes to be dictated by others. Therefore, ASEAN prefers to engage with China.
China and the United States must choose one or the other, and more than half of ASEAN people choose China, which not only impacts the international influence of the United States, but also has a considerable impact on its deployment in the Asia-Pacific region.
At present, in addition to traditional allies such as Japan and South Korea, the United States has found a new "thug" to block China, hoping to contain China's development and accomplish its goal of containing China. This "thug" is the Philippines, which has recently danced happily in the South China Sea.
[Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos meets with US President Joe Biden]
Since taking office, Marcos has stripped off his pretense and frequently challenged China's sovereignty over the South China Sea, with the support of the United States. Even though the Chinese side has released a record of the dialogue, the Philippine side is still obsessed, and the Philippine National Security Council has even called for the expulsion of the Chinese ambassador to the Philippines.
At the same time, the United States and the Philippines also carried out a nearly 20-day "shoulder-to-shoulder" military exercise in the South China Sea, and used a retired Chinese-made warship as a target ship near the end of the exercise. After the incident, the United States and the Philippines were even more hyped and very satisfied with the simulated attack. Intentions against China are on the horizon.
But now, ASEAN's attitude has been made clear, and according to the worst-case scenario, that is, when ASEAN has to take sides between China and the United States, ASEAN will be more willing to choose China. This means that the United States and the Philippines are now hyping up the South China Sea issue, but they are just shooting themselves in the foot, and once the situation gets out of control, it is likely to face more than one China.
[China Coast Guard drives away Philippine vessel trespassing in the South China Sea]
Even for the Philippines, this is even worse news. As a member of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), the Philippines, which insists on confronting China, is an outlier in the context of ASEAN's advocacy of a peaceful settlement of the South China Sea issue and the formulation and implementation of the Code of Conduct in the South China Sea. When the situation in the South China Sea gets out of control, it is likely that the Philippines will be "kicked out" by ASEAN.
When the time comes, who will the Philippines rely on? By the United States? When he said this, Marcos probably didn't believe it. In addition to wanting to maintain peace and stability in the region, China is also concerned about ASEAN's attitude. When the Philippines loses ASEAN, it will not be able to face China's anger.
It is worth mentioning that while the United States and the Philippines were conducting military exercises in the South China Sea, China's high-profile third aircraft carrier "Fujian" successfully completed sea trials, and the process was very smooth. The successful sea trials of the Fujian represent a further enhancement of China's maritime power, and even the electromagnetic catapult and other technologies it uses are more advanced than all the aircraft carriers in service in the United States. This means that China is catching up with or even surpassing the United States' proud navy step by step, and is even breaking the United States' maritime hegemony.
[Fujian ship undergoes sea trials]
It can be seen from this that whether it is to enhance our military strength or to establish and strengthen friendly relations with neighboring countries, we are fully prepared for the South China Sea issue. No matter what kind of storm the United States and the Philippines try to stir up in the South China Sea, China has sufficient means to deal with it.
A few days ago, the Chinese Foreign Ministry also responded to the Philippine side's refusal to recognize the consensus reached between China and the Philippines on the Ren'ai Jiao and South China Sea issues and threatened to expel the Chinese ambassador to the Philippines, warning the Philippine side not to act rashly, let alone shoot itself in the foot. This also shows that China has many means to counter the Philippines.
Again, China loves peace and insists on giving priority to resolving conflicts by peaceful means, but China has also made it clear on many occasions that it will not hesitate to use force on the South China Sea issue. The Chinese People's Liberation Army is always ready to defend every inch of the country's territory.