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Lucio Blanco Pitlo III

Liu Xuejun

From rail links to trade deals, growing economic interdependence and connectivity is deepening ties between China and Southeast Asia.
China has been Asean’s largest trade partner since 2009, while the Association of Southeast Asian Nations has risen to become China’s largest trade partner since 2020. Ties were elevated to a comprehensive strategic partnership in 2021 and last year was designated as the Asean-China Year of People-to-People Exchange. This year, both sides aim to finalise the third upgrade of their free-trade agreement to enhance cooperation in the green and digital economies and supply chains.
In a boost for greater economic integration, plans for the pan-Asian railway linking Kunming with Singapore are also gaining traction.
In all these, the role of central governments cannot be overstated. However, subnational entities also play a crucial, albeit underappreciated, part.

Proximity, bustling markets, security concerns, intractable disputes and the development of its frontier provinces increase the salience of Southeast Asia in China’s neighbourhood diplomacy. Troubled ties with the West will further raise the region’s value in Beijing’s calculus. Southern Chinese provinces leverage their location to ride on Beijing’s grand strategies such as the Belt and Road Initiative, competing with one another to serve as a gateway to Asean. These provinces are at the forefront of deepening border trade and logistics.
Rail connections are a reflection of the growing ties between Asean and China, as seen in the surge in passenger and freight traffic between Yunnan and Guangxi on the Chinese side and Laos and Vietnam on the Indochinese peninsula. Commerce and tourism between mainland Southeast Asia and China also got a boost with the opening of the Vientiane-Kunming railway in 2021 and improvements to the Hanoi-Nanning line, with the upgrading of the Haiphong-Kunming track expected to further this.
The Beibu Gulf Economic Rim strengthens links between Guangxi, Hainan and Guangdong on the one hand and northern and central Vietnam on the other. The creation of the Hainan Free Trade Port is also expected to boost Asean-China trade and cross-border e-commerce.

Southern regions such as Guangxi have been in the thick of the action to improve Asean-China ties and bolster their own profile. Guangxi’s capital Nanning plays host to the annual China-Asean Expo, which held its 21st iteration last year. Last month, the city gathered local chief executives from China and Asean members for the Global Mayors Dialogue. Another Guangxi city, Guilin, hosted the 2023 China-Asean Mayors’ Forum. The region is also part of the Brunei-Guangxi Economic Corridor, which can help diversify the sultanate’s economy.
Subnational linkages, like twinning arrangements, take the cue from national governments. Local governments can also take the initiative, although the degree of autonomy they can exercise varies across countries. Under China’s unitary form of government, the internationalisation and deepening economic ties of its frontier areas with neighbouring counterparts are welcomed as they boost the progress of lower-tier provinces without posing any threat to Beijing. Amid difficulties in top-level political and diplomatic relations, subnational government cooperation may offer a suitable bottom-up strategy to sustain ties.
Friendship ties forged by China’s peripheral provinces with Asean equivalents are indicative of their burgeoning role in deepening two-way relations.
Data from the Chinese People’s Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries showed that Yunnan signed 97 sister local government deals with foreign counterparts, 41 of which are with Asean members. The province accounts for more than half of all friendship dyads between China and Myanmar. Guangxi entered into similar agreements with 132 international peers, 61 of which are from Asean. The region accounts for 23 out of the 53 friendship dyads between China and Vietnam. Yunnan also plays a key role in the subregional Lancang-Mekong Cooperation, which brings China and five riparian countries together in one forum.


Turbulence in high-level politics does not necessarily impede subnational bonds. Interactions among established local friendships and tie-ups have remained largely unaffected.
A case in point is that of the Philippines and China, two neighbours recently locked in a searing maritime row. Baguio and Hangzhou in 1982 had the honour of being the inaugural pair of friendship cities between Asean and China, setting the tone for further local linkages. Ilocos Sur and Hubei linked up in 2019 while in 2023, three other sister city deals were signed despite bilateral tensions. Likewise, four twinning pacts between Vietnam and China were concluded last year despite similar tensions between the two neighbours. This shows the resilience of local connections.
The support or indifference of central governments can shape the substance of subnational ties. Stringent guidelines and vetoes that capitals may impose can clip the wings of local governments. Worries, if not paranoia, that subnational links can be used to promote maligned foreign influence may dissuade local units from exploring such arrangements. Resource constraints and capacity limits of local governments in negotiating such deals are also a challenge.

Moreover, the proliferation of online casinos and scam factories in Southeast Asia that prey on Chinese nationals and the simmering sea spat may diminish the appetite to foster new sister ties. The widely publicised case of Chinese actor Wang Xing, who was deceived and abducted at the Thailand-Myanmar border, has coloured Chinese public views of the region.
That said, overly securitising or politicising friendship local ties remains the biggest obstacle to maximising such subnational engagements. For instance, in the Philippines, sisterhood accords with Chinese peers were hyped as potential vectors of foreign interference despite many of them being more formal than substantive.
Subnational links can constitute alternative channels or even act as a ballast to steady ties amid storms in top-level bilateral relations. Adding more intertwined layers can expand constituencies in support of stable and cordial overall relations.
Lucio Blanco Pitlo III is president of the Philippine Association for Chinese Studies and research fellow at the Asia-Pacific Pathways to Progress Foundation. Liu Xuejun is a PhD candidate at the Department of Public and International Affairs, City University of Hong Kong.


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Such a bottom-up strategy provides alternative channels to sustain ties amid the storms in top-level bilateral relations


Such a bottom-up strategy provides alternative channels to sustain ties amid the storms in top-level bilateral relations.


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.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Such a bottom-up strategy provides alternative channels to sustain ties amid the storms in top-level bilateral relations

Such a bottom-up strategy provides alternative channels to sustain ties amid the storms in top-level bilateral relations