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Zhao Ziwen

Chinese Premier Li Qiang played up the potential of greater economic integration between Asean and Beijing at a regional summit on Thursday, prompting pushback from the Philippines.
Addressing leaders of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) in the Laotian capital Vientiane on Thursday, Li said closer and more organic integration of the two markets would have a major scaling-up effect on the economy.
“The extra-large market is the greatest support we have to promote economic prosperity, and improving market connectivity is an important direction for our further cooperation,” Li said.
He also said China and Asean had completed talks to upgrade their free trade pact, saying it showed China’s “firm support for multilateralism and free trade”.
“Today, I am pleased to announce with the leaders of Asean that the negotiations on the China-Asean Free Trade Area to its 3.0 version have reached a substantial conclusion,” Li said.
“This is an important step in our joint efforts to lead the economic integration of [Southeast and East] Asia.”
The value of trade between China and Asean has grown by more than 15-fold in 20 years, amounting to US$911.7 billion last year, according to Chinese customs data.
China has also been the bloc’s biggest trading partner for more than a decade.
With the growing risk of a Western blockade, China is also looking to Southeast Asia as a potential major market for its new energy industry, particularly for electric vehicles.
“We must see that our market is upgrading comprehensively – whether it is industrial upgrading, digitalisation, green transformation or structural adjustment of imports and exports – so that new investment opportunities are created,” Li told the summit.


Despite the growth in trade, China’s relations with Asean are being tested by territorial disputes in the South China Sea, an issue that Li did not refer to in his address.
China claims nearly the entire waterway of the South China Sea, including areas also claimed by the Philippines, Brunei, Malaysia, and Vietnam.
Chinese vessels have been involved in a number of stand-offs and clashes in the contested waters, most recently on Tuesday with Philippine fishing boats near Scarborough Shoal.
Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos, Jnr said Asean and China could not pretend that all was well on the economic front when there were tensions on the political front, according to Agence France-Presse.
During the summit, Marcos said “you cannot separate economic cooperation from political security”.




Marcos also urged Asean members and China to speed up negotiations on an Asean-China code of conduct for the contested waters.
“In our view, there should be more urgency in the pace of the negotiations of the Asean-China code of conduct,” Marcos said, according to his office.
He said the overall situation in the South China Sea remained “tense and unchanged” and “parties must be earnestly open to seriously managing the differences and to reduce tensions”.
Manila is the most vocal rival claimant in countering Beijing’s growing ambition in the waters. There have been multiple confrontations, sometimes violent, between vessels of the two countries in disputed waters which has raised concerns of escalating into conflicts.
Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong also told the summit on Wednesday that “the South China Sea is a live and immediate issue, with real risks of an accident spiralling into conflict”.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrived in Laos on Thursday and is likely to raise the issue in talks with Asean leaders on Friday.
Beijing has long accused Washington of being an “external force” meddling in the dispute and damaging regional stability.


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South China Sea

Chinese Premier Li Qiang pushes for stronger economic integration with Asean

Leaders from Asean nations as well as Chinese Premier Li Qiang are meeting in Vientiane, Laos, for an annual summit. Photo: EPA-EFE

Li Qiang to tout ‘righteous’ China as Asean forum mutes criticism of Beijing: analysts

China’s Premier Li Qiang is attending an Asean forum in Laos this week, as Beijing seeks to shore up regional ties. Photo: AFP

Asean leaders stand for a group photo during the plenary session of the 44th Asean Summit in Vientiane, Laos, on Wednesday. Photo: Reuters

Whether Trump or Harris wins, for Manila, 1 thing will stay the same

Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jnr talks to US Indo-Pacific commander Admiral Samuel Paparo during a courtesy visit, at the Malacanang presidential palace in Manila on August 27. Photo: AP

US President Joe Biden (centre) escorts Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jnr (left) and Japan’s then prime minister Fumio Kishida to their trilateral summit at the White House in Washington on April 11. Photo: Reuters

Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jnr greets US Vice-President Kamala Harris at the Malacanang presidential palace in Manila on November 21, 2022. Photo: AP

Then US president Donald Trump speaks to the Philippines’ then president, Rodrigo Duterte, before the opening ceremony of the 31st Asean summit in Manila on November 13, 2017. Photo: AP

Antony Blinken to discuss South China Sea and Ukraine at Asean summit

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken is headed to Laos for a meeting of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. Photo: Reuters

Daniel Kritenbrink, the US State Department’s assistant secretary for East Asian and Pacific affairs. Photo: EPA-EFE

Blinken with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi before a September 27 meeting in New York. Photo: AFP/Getty Images/TNS

Philippines sides with Vietnam in South China Sea dispute, hoping it will ‘return the favour’

A member of the Philippine Coast Guard personnel salutes as a Vietnamese Coastguard ship during a joint maritime exercise in the disputed South China Sea on August 9. Photo: AFP

A China coastguard patrol ship manoeuvres near a Philippine Coast Guard vessel in the disputed waters of the South China Sea, on February 8. Photo: Philippine Coast Guard/EPA-EFE

News

China

Diplomacy

Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos, Jnr says economic cooperation can’t be divorced from political security


Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos, Jnr says economic cooperation can’t be divorced from political security.


China-Asean relations

Asean

China economy

The Philippines