My Take | Closer Asean ties can help China counter US militarisation of region

President Xi Jinping toured Southeast Asia last month to drum up support from such countries as Vietnam, Malaysia and Cambodia in the face of Washington’s tariff war.

The regional tour was meant to showcase China as a force for stability, free trade and cooperation. By contrast, Donald Trump’s “America first” agenda was portrayed as their common threat. But Beijing’s foreign policy and trade agenda seem to be at cross purposes.

The Asean economies, coupled with the Chinese behemoth, remains the most compelling growth engine in the world economy today. They can grow together, which in itself creates an economic barrier to the American attempt at militarising the Asia-Pacific.

At the moment, though, faced with economic slowdown, China has been ramping up exports, including to Southeast Asia, thus exacerbating a long-standing trade imbalance against Asean economies.

But China’s security, both economic and national, ultimately depends on the goodwill of its neighbours, especially those within Asean; well, the Philippines is a different story.

Given the mostly non-ideological relations among the Asean member states, and their willingness to sit on the fence in the bitter rivalry between China and the United States, there is much that Beijing can do to improve its relations.

This may mean sacrificing some short-term economic benefits such as by changing from a state-sponsored export strategy to opening up the domestic economy to friendly Asean states. More importantly, China can commit a lot more foreign investments in Asean economies, for example, in the apparel sector which collectively employs more than 7.5 million workers in Vietnam, Indonesia and Cambodia. At the moment, the domestic Chinese apparel sector is in direct competition with them.