China’s Foreign Affairs and International Relations Professor QIU Huafei Professor SONG Lilei & Dr. WANG Liqin 2019/2/22 School of Politics and International Relations

Chapter Five: China’s Asia-Pacific Security Environment China’s Peaceful Rise China vs ASEAN: Cooperative Diplomacy Future Outlook China’s Rise and its Increasing Role in ASEAN ASEAN-China Free Trade Agreements Development Cooperation

Chapter Five China’s Asia-Pacific Security Environment Globalization not only helped pull China and Asia-Pacific countries out of poverty, but also it provided access to international markets as well as technology that enabled vast increases in productivity. The international flow of ideas and knowledge, the sharing of cultures, global civil society, and the global environmental movement are growing up in some developing countries.

China views globalization and multipolarization reinforce each other to create common interests that can replace the “China threat” theory with the China opportunity theory. The WTO was seen as an important carrier of globalization, which would allow China to become a respectable member in the open international economic system, enabling China to enjoy equal trading treatment and to take part in formulating trade regulations.

China must seek a peaceful global environment to develop its economy even as it tries to safeguard world peace through development. China is determined to blaze a new trail of industrialization that is technology-intensive, high in economic returns, low in resource consumption and environmental pollution and a full play of our advantage of human resources.

China vs ASEAN: Cooperative Diplomacy Building relations based on mutual benefit with all of its neighbors is a central objective of this strategy. China wants to demonstrate that closer trade, investment, and even security relations with China can be beneficial to its neighbors. The relationship between China and ASEAN (the Association of Southeast Asian Nations) became easier at the beginning of 1990s.

ASEAN welcomed China’s ratification of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) in May 1996. China became an active consultative partner of ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) in 1996.

China and ASEAN signed the Treaty of Amity and Cooperation with ASEAN in October 2003, the nonaggression pact of the association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). China simultaneously issued a joint declaration with ASEAN, the “Strategic Partnership for peace and prosperity” which included a call to establish a security dialogue between the 10 member countries of ASEAN and China. The objective is to build an East Asian Community founded on economic, social, and security cooperation.

The South China Sea is vital for Chinese development during the time of globalization. It has been the main corridor for China’s trade and the principal gateway to the outside world. According to Western views that the main difficulty and task how to engage China in order to solve the traditional security dilemmas in the region will remain at the top of the future regional security agenda.

Since joining the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 2001, China increased its involvement in Asia to enhance its global competitiveness. The Chinese government shifted its diplomatic strategy from that of a developing country focused on issues of domestic concerns towards one that is taking regional and global leadership. This raised questions concerning the nature of China’s rise and its implications.

The prediction by many analysts that China will be the world’s most powerful economy by 2050 was echoed by a warning from US Congress representatives about such overtake. The countries within the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) started to strengthen their bilateral relationship with China in recognition of China’s growing role as a source of investment.

Trade between China and ASEAN has been on the rise, growing at an annual average of 19% between 1995 and 2002. The 2002 trade record is US$ 54.8 billion. This leapt to more than US$100 billion for the first time in 2004 and further increased to US$130.37 billion in 2005. ASEAN trade with Japan and the US remained higher at $136 billion each in 2004, but this is expected to be overtaken by ASEAN-China trade soon.

Development Cooperation China is balancing its deepening trade partnership with ASEAN with development support. China is now trying to match Japan’s role in development assistance, which remains dominant. Clearly, the current swirl of Chinese money to development projects within ASEAN is intended to warm the relationship between China and its neighbors.