Want China Times, Staff Reporter 2015-03-29
The 2015 Boao Forum for Asia, currently underway in China's southern island province of Hainan under the theme "Asia's New Future: Towards a Community of Common Destiny," has revealed a good deal about China's continuing role in forming this community and the basis on which it can be established, according to Duowei News, an outlet run by overseas Chinese.
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| Xi Jinping, right, meets President Joko Widodo of Indonesia at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, March 26. (Photo/Xinhua) |
The 2015 Boao Forum for Asia, currently underway in China's southern island province of Hainan under the theme "Asia's New Future: Towards a Community of Common Destiny," has revealed a good deal about China's continuing role in forming this community and the basis on which it can be established, according to Duowei News, an outlet run by overseas Chinese.
The
sub-forums held at the forum laid out China's blueprint for the community,
according to the website.
There have
been six main topics of discussion at this year's forum, including
macroeconomic policy, regional cooperation, industrial transformation,
political security and social welfare, with 77 formal discussion sessions.
There has also been much talk of China's Asia Infrastructure Investment Bank
(AIIB) initiative, as well as the New Silk Road Economic Belt, the 21st Century
Maritime Silk Road plans, East Asian economic integration and the much touted
"new normal" for China's economy.
This year's
Boao Forum has coincided with the end of the two sessions in China–the annual
meetings of the National People's Congress and the Chinese People's Political
Consultative Conference–and the deadline for application to be a founding
member of the AIIB on March 31. China has taken advantage of this convenient
timing to discuss these concepts at length. In the middle of all the discussion
centered on China however, the forum also played host to a discussion session
entitled "ASEAN Community: A New Starting Point for Integration" at
which foreign minister Wang Yi gave a speech. This has led many to speculate on
Beijing's reasons for lending such importance to this session.
Quiet
changes at the Boao Forum
That China
was willing to give the floor to this session, during such a high-profile
diplomatic event for the country, suggests that ASEAN integration is key to
China's interests in the region and to its own trade initiatives.
Asia
accounts for 60% of the world's population and according to an estimate by the
Asian Development Bank, by 2050, Asia will make up 51% of the global GDP.
However, it is not yet clear how regional integration will play out through
this time frame. In recent decades Asia has witnessed unprecedented economic growth,
increased regional trade and direct investment as well as economic and social
exchanges between countries. This is not just on the economic front, but also
in terms of security, in dealing with terrorism and pirates. Political and
military cooperation is also starting to make headway, according to Duowei.
Compared
with Europe, Africa or South America, however, Asia has traditionally been held
back by geographical issues, which have prevented institutionalized
cooperation, with only informal meetings between leaders and ministerial-level
summits. There is also a need for an effective negotiation mechanism in Asia.
Beijing clearly hopes that its new initiatives can resolve this.
At the
national level, the ten countries that make up ASEAN have undergone different
paths of political, cultural and economic development, but as an organization,
they make up a collective of 600 million people, linked by river ways as well
as maritime and overland routes, stretching through Eurasia to the Pacific.
This is of strategic importance for China's planned "Belt and Road"
initiative, as ASEAN countries serve as the gateway to the 21st Century
Maritime Silk Road. ASEAN countries were also among the earliest initiators of
economic integration in Asia, setting out first from preferential trade
conditions, to free trade agreements, until they eventually formed an economic
community.
This is not
the first time Beijing has dedicated a platform to talks between ASEAN
countries. Beijing sees ASEAN as a testing ground for its ambitions to
implement its strategic entry into Eurasia and so has played a key role in
facilitating integration within the organization. From 1991 onward, after then
foreign minister Qian Qichen visited the 24th ASEAN leaders' summit as a guest
at the invite of host country Malaysia, China's cooperative relationship with
the organization began in earnest. This led to regional economic cooperation
initiatives surrounding the Mekong river and the Gulf of Tonkin and China
subsequently played a role in facilitating negotiations over the ASEAN Regional
Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) and its predecessor.
President
Xi Jinping invited the Indonesian president, Joko Widodo, on a state visit on
the eve of the forum from March 25-28. On March 26 the two leaders issued a
joint statement announcing that they would strengthen the strategic partnership
between their countries. The joint statement also reaffirmed Beijing's support
for ASEAN's role in regional integration as well as for the ASEAN+3 mechanism -
talks between ASEAN countries, South Korea, China and Japan. As Indonesia is
often perceived as the major driver behind ASEAN, the move is likely another
sign of the importance Beijing is placing on the organization.
The idea of
a "Community of Destiny" was first mentioned in a report from the
18th CPC National Congress in November 2012. The concept also featured in Xi's
speech at the 2013 Boao Forum, held in April of that year. Xi also mentioned
the concept while meeting with Laotian president Choummaly Sayasone in August
of 2013 and in a speech at the Indonesian congress in September of the same
year. On each occasion he stressed the importance of ASEAN to this community of
destiny.
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Li Keqiang,
right, meets Joko Widodo at the Great Hall of the
People in Beijing,
March 27. (Photo/Xinhua)
|
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