Li cites China-ASEAN trade, sea achievements
Chinese Premier Li Keqiang underscored the cooperation achievements in trade and the South China Sea issue between China and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) on Wednesday, which experts believe could provide stability to uncertain global political and economic conditions.
In the past 15 years, China and ASEAN have enhanced political trust and cooperation with each other. The two have become significant powers on the world stage, Li said at the 21st ASEAN-China (10+1) Summit in Singapore.
On the South China Sea issue, Li noted that “we hope after three years, the Code of Conduct (COC) of the South China Sea could help maintain peace and stability in the South China Sea, contribute to free trade, and upgrade the China-ASEAN free trade area.”
China is ready to work with all ASEAN members toward concluding the South China Sea COC negotiations within three years, Li said.
China and the ASEAN on Wednesday also adopted a key document to chart the course for
their ties till 2030, the Xinhua News Agency reported on Wednesday.
Ge Hongliang, director of Guangxi University for Nationalities’ College of ASEAN Studies, told the Global Times that relationship between China and the ASEAN has been upgraded and matured in the past five years, with achievements in trade, investment, defense and human exchanges.
To develop trade and investment ties under the upgraded free trade area, China and ASEAN should actively maintain peace in the South China Sea to ensure the region’s connection, Ge said.
Li Kaisheng, a research fellow at the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times on Wednesday that the Belt and Road initiative has provided greater energy to ASEAN economic development, and the situation on the South China Sea also guarantees regional peace and stability.
“The winning situation not only benefits China and ASEAN members, but also makes the uncertain world politics and economy more stable,” he noted.
Premier Li visited Tessa Therapeutics, a biopharmaceutical company engaged in developing and commercializing cancer immunotherapies in Singapore, on Tuesday, according to gov.cn, the Chinese government’s website.
He expressed China’s intention to cooperate with such companies to lower the pain cancer sufferers feel and relieve the stress on their families.
Upgraded ties
This year marks the 40th anniversary of China’s reform and opening-up. Premier Li arrived in Singapore on November 12, the same day of the year Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping visited the country in 1978.
“China-Singapore relations have been developing at the same pace of the reform and openingup,” Li Kaisheng said. “During China’s reform and opening-up, Singapore has been a model and a channel to the Western world.”
“Premier Li Keqiang’s visit to Singapore is a solid basis for an ‘upgraded’ bilateral relationship, which is expected to expand further,” he said.
Ge said that Singapore, as a country with a majority Chinese population, had provided experience in national management and trade development to China’s reform and opening-up. He noted that China and Singapore now could learn from each other’s development.
China’s reform and opening-up has also become a topic in Singapore. On Monday, local newspaper Lianhe Zaobao published a 28-page supplement on the changes of China in the past 40 years, covering politics, economy and entertainment.
In the city center along the Singapore River stands a statue of Deng, with the inscription calling him “the chief architect who transformed China into an economic giant.”