By Zhong Sheng, People’s Daily
As an important platform for promoting solidarity and cooperation among countries in East Asia,
the East Asian cooperation mechanism is supposed to focus on development and pragmatic
cooperation. Unfortunately, certain countries outside the region always attempt to seek
geopolitical interests through this platform.
At the recently-concluded foreign ministers’ meetings on East Asia cooperation, the U.S.
frequently stirred up enmity and caused discord on the South China Sea issue, and attacked and
defamed China regarding China’s internal affairs.
Clichés of the U.S. haven’t been echoed by ASEAN countries, but instead made more people see
clearly how the country has gone against the trend of global cooperation and its hegemonic
mindset, arrogance and impertinence have fallen long behind the times.
Recently, the U.S. has arranged intensive activities concerning the ASEAN region, and claimed
that these well-designed activities are aimed at showing greater attention of the current U.S.
administration to the ASEAN.
However, judging from the country’s frequently hyping up the so-called “China threat” and
wantonly attacking and smearing China, the “attention” to the ASEAN claimed by the U.S. has
nothing to do with cooperation and development, but is merely a disguise. The true purpose of the
“attention” is to incite division in the region and use ASEAN countries as a “chess piece” to serve
the strategic goal of suppressing China, which ASEAN countries have been well aware of.
It was not until after Washington positioned China as its major foreign policy challenge that
Southeast Asian countries with more than 600 million people got attention from the U.S., pointed
out a recent article published in Singaporean newspaper Lianhe Zaobao.
Attempt of the U.S. to stock bloc confrontation among countries in East Asia shows the country’s
disregard of the current situation and general trend of cooperation among countries in the region.
Over the past decades, China-ASEAN relations have been constantly deepened and enjoyed all-
round development, become a fine example of the most successful and vibrant bilateral relations
in the Asia-Pacific, and served as an important pillar for peace, stability and prosperity in the
region.
The fruitful cooperation between the two sides after the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic has
been an example of international cooperation on fighting the pandemic and promoting economic
recovery.
China has by far provided over 190 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines for ASEAN countries.
Trade volume between China and the ASEAN during the first half of this year surpassed $410
billion, up 38.2 percent year on year. ASEAN has remained China’s largest trading partner, and
the accumulated two-way investment between the two sides has exceeded $310 billion.
The entry into force and implementation of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership
(RCEP) agreement has brought more powerful driving force to the economic and trade
cooperation between the two sides.
Secretary-general of the ASEAN Lim Jock Hoi pointed out that the ASEAN-China strategic
partnership has become one of the most substantive and dynamic partnerships in the region.
It serves the common interests of all countries in the region to accommodate the aspirations and
interests of all parties, promote common security, and achieve lasting peace and stability in the
region.
What the U.S. has done poses a risk of the return of geopolitics to the region, and therefore
naturally won’t win the support of ASEAN countries.
“Many U.S. friends and allies wish to preserve their extensive ties with both powers (China and
the U.S.),” stressed Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong recently.
The U.S., however, turns a blind eye to such desire and still thinks it is able to create a ring of
encirclement against China in the region. Such wishful thinking has revealed the arrogance and
bigotry of the U.S. and proven that the Cold War mentality the country has stuck to is outdated.
At the recent foreign ministers’ meetings on East Asia cooperation, foreign ministers of many
countries in the region have echoed and supported China’s position, which has fully demonstrated
that as time goes by, the region no longer has “lecturers” or needs “saviors”, and that countries are
well aware that they should grasp their future in their own hands and jointly create the prospect of
the region.
After its attempt to suppress and contain China was rebuffed constantly, the U.S. should have
known that it needs to alter its fundamental strategy toward China and abandon the wrong
mentality of viewing China as an imaginary enemy.
Countries in the region have formed close cooperative ties with China, and therefore the U.S. must
take into consideration the interests of its partners when making foreign policies, and couldn’t just
impose its own desires on them, said former U.S. Ambassador to China Stapleton Roy.
The diplomatic agenda of the U.S. has been totally plunged into the mire of suppressing and
containing China, which has not only impacted on regional and international landscape, but
caused tremendous damage to the interests of the U.S. itself.
At present, the U.S. is faced with deteriorating COVID-19 situation at home, with the daily tally
of new COVID-19 infections exceeding 100,000 on average. The U.S. government should focus
its energy on coping with the pandemic, safeguarding the health of American people, and
intensifying international anti-epidemic cooperation, rather than the vain attempt to suppress
China.
Joseph Nye, a professor at Harvard University, recently warned in an article that the concept of
great-power rivalry provides an insufficient alert to a new type of threat the U.S. faces, and that
the current U.S. strategy results in a Pentagon budget that is more than 100 times that of the U.S.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Although the U.S. frequently claims that it deals with China from a “position of strength”, the so-
called “position of strength” can be supported by neither domestic nor global realities.
The U.S. can never change China, and will by no means obstruct or interrupt China’s course of
modernization.
The world needs China and the U.S. to find through dialogue a way of peaceful co-existence and
even mutually beneficial and win-win cooperation though the two countries are so different in
their social systems, culture, and development stages.
The U.S. side should change its course as soon as possible, choose to meet China halfway and
pursue mutual respect, fair competition, and peaceful coexistence with China.
(Zhong Sheng is a pen name often used by People’s Daily to express its views on China’s foreign
policy and international affairs.)
