ASEAN gets to know China’s inclusiveness versus US’ egoism
Prodding the 10- member ASEAN countries to side with Washington, the US President Joe Biden made a couple of vague promises during his weekend summit meeting with the leaders from Southeast Asia. The Biden administration pledged $ 150 million in aid to ASEAN to assist local infrastructure, pandemic preparedness, green growth and other projects, and it also announced the US- choreographed plan named IndoPacific Economic Framework ( IPEF).
Senior officials from the White House told reporters bluntly that the US convened the summit in order to short- circuit China’s growing influence in the region.
But just as the majority of ASEAN nations have, persistently, refused to condemn Russia and President Vladimir Putin – something the US government has been eagerly asking for ever since the Ukraine crisis broke out on February 24, Asian countries are highly unlikely to jump on the US bandwagon of playing another geopolitical zero sum game targeting China.
ASEAN leaders know perfectly well the stark difference of global and regional governance between China and the US. China is a close neighbor, with a mammoth market of 1.4- billion increasingly affluent consumers, and Chinese leadership has been promoting win- win economic partnership and common prosperity agenda through closer regional integration initiatives like the RCEP and BRI – the world’s largest free trade agreement, and the most important and largest cooperative infrastructure scheme, respectively.
In sharp contrast, what the US government has been pursuing is forming political and military alliances one after another to shore up and prolong its predominance and hegemony throughout the world.
After Biden took the White House, his administration has picked up Obama’s pivot- to- Asia strategy and started to form political and military groupings in Asia, typically the US- JapanAustralia- India quadrilateral security clique called the QUAD, and AUKUS, in which the US and Britain are set to build advanced nuclear submarines for Australia. Both groupings are reportedly to contain China’s development, but like NATO, will surely splinter Asia and make Asia an increasingly dangerous place – like Europe.
To protect American workers and manufacturers, the Biden administration does not want to give low- or zerotariff treatment to ASEAN countries. But to make itself look good, the Biden administration hastened to draft the IPEF – a patchwork that allow ASEAN and other regional countries to sign up for “different modules covering fair trade, supply chain resilience, infrastructure and decarbonization, and tax and anti- corruption.”
But, IPEF is never a competitor against RCEP and BRI. Packaging a new framework cannot disguise the way the US is entrenched in egoism and economic protectionism. In the foreseeable future, Washington will continue to refuse to negotiate that kind of significant marketopening free trade deals and inclusive infrastructure initiatives that ASEAN nations want most.
Compared to the US government’ embracing a Cold War mentality, playing group politics and engaging in bloc confrontation, China has led global efforts to build a balanced, effective and sustainable global and regional security architecture. In terms of economic partnership, China will continue to put forward initiatives like BRI and RCEP to create more win- win opportunities and drive ASEAN’s growth.
Asian countries and government leaders will treasure regional stability and prosperity just as they love their eyes. With China acting as a strong regional engine, the 680- million- population ASEAN is destined to double and triple its current $ 3.3 trillion economy.