China hosts Southeast Asian ministers as it competes with US

BEIJING — China is hosting foreign ministers from 10 Southeast Asian nations this week amid heightened competition between Beijing and Washington for influence in the region. The Philippines has complained repeatedly over the presence of Chinese boats moored at a reef that it claims and Malaysia last week protested over an alleged intrusion by 16 Chinese military aircraft into its airspace, calling the incident a “serious threat to national sovereignty and flight safety.” China’s economic and diplomatic heft has helped override such concerns, however, while the bloc has been unable to form a unified stand in the face of opposition from Chinese allies within it, primarily Cambodia. “The fact that the two sides agreed to hold a face-to-face special foreign ministers’ meeting despite the ongoing grim COVID-19 situation reflects how countries attach great importance to and hold high expectations of China-ASEAN relations under the new circumstances,” Wang said. In a meeting with Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen last Tuesday, U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman focused on China’s construction of new facilities at Ream Naval Base and urged Cambodia’s leadership to maintain an independent and balanced foreign policy, “in the best interests of the Cambodian people.” It wasn’t clear whether the issue of Myanmar, an ASEAN member where the military seized power in a coup on Feb. 1, would come up at the meeting with ASEAN foreign ministers. “We support ASEAN, as a mature regional organization, in encouraging and constructively participating in Myanmar’s domestic reconciliation process in the ASEAN way, and working out effective approaches to alleviate the situation and solve the problem within the ASEAN framework.” “China will continue to maintain close communication with ASEAN, support ASEAN’s mediation efforts, and work with all parties in Myanmar in its own way to promote an early soft landing of the situation in Myanmar,” Wang said.