From the announcements of a $25 billion contract to import
liquefied natural gas from Malaysia to a $1 billion investment in a
Philippines nickel mine, China this week has been flaunting its
growing economic and political might with its near neighbors in
Asia.
And Southeast Asian leaders, who gathered in China on Monday and
Tuesday to mark 15 years of close relations between their region
and its economic giant, have been scrambling to secure investment
and trade deals, and to praise Beijing's largesse.
The rhetoric of the 10 leaders of the Association of South East
Asian Nations is that China's rise presents a historic economic
opportunity rather than a security threat. Chinese and Southeast
Asian leaders at the China- Asean Business and Investment Summit
spoke effusively of a relationship based on "mutual trust in
politics and economic integration."
President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo of the Philippines, the
chairwoman of Asean this year, said Wednesday that "engagement with
China has been good for the Philippines and it has been good for
Asean," whether measured by rising trade and investment flows,
increased aid assistance or security cooperation.
Her comments echoed an endorsement a day earlier of Beijing's charm
offensive toward the region by Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi
of Malaysia, the Southeast Asian leader with the greatest
experience in foreign policy. Flushed with triumph after signing
the richest liquefied-natural-gas contract with a Chinese buyer, a
25- year deal to supply a Shanghai terminal, Badawi said China had
become "very global" and was sincere in its attempts to open
up.
"Perceiving China as a threat has been wrong," Badawi said at a
news conference Tuesday. "We have always regarded China as an
opportunity."
Beijing's commitment to what it calls a "peaceful rise" and the
calculated use of its economic clout as leverage to win friends in
the developing world is clearly paying dividends.
On Saturday, days after the Southeast Asian leaders have gone home,
China will sponsor a two-day China-Africa Co- operation Summit at
which 45 African heads of state and government are to discuss
economic and development issues.
China runs a trade deficit with most of the developing world, a far
cry from its relationships with major markets like the United
States, Europe and Japan. But developing countries are vital to
China's growth, supplying the raw materials and energy it
desperately needs.
The payoff for China from these deepening ties to the developing
world is not restricted to commerce.
Many of the arrangements that have inspired Southeast Asian
security measures over the past 50 years were designed as bulwarks
against Chinese Communist expansion.
Now Southeast Asia, whose leaders have traditionally looked to the
United States as the anchor of regional security, are speaking out
about the need to strengthen their relationships with Beijing. The
issue that topped the agenda in talks this week with Chinese
leaders? North Korea's atomic bomb test of Oct. 9.
It is easy to see why so much of the developing world is beating a
path to China in pursuit of commercial opportunities. Figures from
the Chinese Ministry of Commerce, released during the China-Asean
meeting in Nanning, show that trade with Southeast Asia jumped to
$130 billion in 2005, from $2 billion in 1980.
China's investment in Southeast Asia totaled $35 billion by the end
of 2005 and analysts said trade was projected to reach $200 billion
by 2010. On just one day of the China-Asean meeting in Nanning,
Beijing signed 10 contracts for a total value of $600 million, the
Ministry of Commerce said.
On a stopover in Hong Kong on Wednesday, after the summit meeting,
Arroyo said the sharp growth in trade with and investment by China
was a bonanza for the Philippines. Trade between Beijing and
Manila, she said, had grown by "leaps and bounds" and "huge Chinese
investments" were flowing in.
"From almost nothing before 2001," she said, bilateral trade was
"now $17 billion and very much in favor of the Philippines."
Arroyo said earlier that if, as planned, a free-trade zone was
created by 2010 among Asean nations and China, it could reduce
Southeast Asia's "dependence for our exports on Western markets,
such as the U.S. and Europe."
While Arroyo was in China, the Philippines agreed to allow China's
largest steel maker, its largest nickel producer and one of its
banks to invest $1 billion in a nickel mine on the island of
Mindanao. The planned investment by Baoshan Iron and Steel,
Jinchuan Group and China Development Bank would take advantage of a
new law in the Philippines that allows 100 percent foreign
ownership of mining ventures.
In other deals discussed with Chinese leaders, including Prime
Minister Wen Jiabao, China has agreed to finance a $400 million
extension of a rail line to connect Manila with the industrial
center of Clark, about 50 kilometers, or 30 miles, north of the
capital. Wen is scheduled to officiate at the groundbreaking
ceremony for a glass factory in Clark when he makes a state visit
to the Philippines in December. Beijing has put $300 million into
the factory.
Arroyo said she and other Southeast Asian leaders were also trying
to enhance security cooperation with a Beijing that she said has
been willing to show flexibility on territorial claims in the South
China Sea.