China key player for ASEAN<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (AFP): China's growing economic and military clout
\nmakes it a key outside player for the Association of Southeast
\nAsian Nations (ASEAN) and there are worries Beijing is dominating
\nrelations, diplomats and analysts say.<\/p>\n
Beijing's past or potential role as a power broker in
\nIndochina's and Myanmar's civil wars and dictatorships, its
\ninfluence on the nuclear issue in North Korea, and territorial
\ndisputes with ASEAN force it into the Southeast Asian picture,
\nthese sources say.<\/p>\n
After Southeast Asian foreign ministers hold their annual
\nmeeting here this weekend, Chinese Foreign Minister Qian Qichen
\nwill take part in the third ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) on
\npolitical security issues Tuesday.<\/p>\n
It will be the first time he joins ministers of the United
\nStates, European Union and Japan in this annual dialog with the
\nseven ASEAN countries.<\/p>\n
\"China is still considered as a long-term threat to the
\nregion,\" said Bantarto Bandoro of the Center for Strategic and
\nInternational Studies, a Jakarta-based think-tank.<\/p>\n
Therefore it makes perfect sense to engage Beijing in a
\ncontinuing dialog under a formal setup to be able to \"constrain
\nits behavior,\" he added.<\/p>\n
But there is growing concern within ASEAN that China is
\ndictating the conduct of exchanges.<\/p>\n
Beijing's foreign ministry said in April that \"under no
\ncircumstance should ARF be used to exert pressure on other
\ncountries or to intervene in specific regional issues.\"<\/p>\n
China said it preferred the ARF to remain as a forum on
\ngeneral security concerns \"rather than a mechanism for them to
\nhandle and address specific security issues in the region.\"<\/p>\n
Bandoro said China \"is not as open as ASEAN would want it to
\nbe\" in terms of its military activities and intentions, and that
\nalthough it has registered its defense acquisitions with the UN,
\nit has yet to respond to calls by some ASEAN states to a regional
\narms register within ARF.<\/p>\n
While China's leaders have expressed willingness to resolve
\ndisagreements with Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam
\nover the disputed Spratly and Paracel islands \"in accordance with
\nrecognized international law,\" it insists on bilateral rather
\nthan multilateral talks.<\/p>\n
Earlier this year Beijing issued a decree unilaterally
\nexpanding its territorial waters in the South China Sea.<\/p>\n
Official sources said ASEAN ministers are to include their
\nconcern over the situation in the South China Sea over \"several
\noutstanding issues\" in their draft communique for the weekend
\nmeeting.<\/p>\n
\"I don't think that they (the Chinese) would want to discuss
\nit (the South China Sea dispute) at all\" during ASEAN's
\nconsultations with dialog partners on Wednesday and Thursday, but
\nthe issue is \"inevitable,\" Philippine Foreign Undersecretary
\nRodolfo Severino said.<\/p>\n
Even the entry this month of Myanmar, reviled in the West for
\nits human rights record, as an ASEAN observer could be said to be
\n\"to some extent\" motivated by ASEAN's desire to keep Yangon's
\nmilitary junta from gravitating to the orbit of China, an old
\nmilitary ally, Bandoro said.<\/p>",
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