ASEAN expands due to worries over China
ASEAN expands due to worries over China
By Rene Pastor
SINGAPORE (Reuter): Southeast Asia has embraced international pariah Myanmar despite strenuous Western objections partly due to rising apprehension over the growth of China's economic and military might, security experts said on Wednesday.
They said trepidation among leaders of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) that China's robust growth will boost its military prowess was a vital factor in the decision to accept Myanmar, Laos and Cambodia into the group.
The seven members of ASEAN agreed last weekend the three countries would be admitted at a July summit in Kuala Lumpur. "You cannot discount the possibility that it (China) will exercise the rights of a Middle Kingdom," Carolina Hernandez, president of the Institute for Strategic and Development Studies in the Philippines, told Reuters.
She said during a one-day conference of defense experts there were lingering doubts "about the possible hegemonic ambitions of China" in the region especially since it has expressed its "clear intention of modernizing its army".
"With 10 countries, we have enough resilience and enough capacity to also determine our own future and face the pressures from anywhere, including China," said Jusuf Wanadi, chairman of the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Indonesia.
"I think that's a major consideration," said Carlyle Thayer, the head of the Department of Politics in University College at the University of New South Wales in Australia.
"In the case of Myanmar, it could be a loose cannon on the deck that is being supplied by China. ASEAN would very much prefer to lash Myanmar down by at least getting it into ASEAN than leaving it on the outside," Thayer said.
ASEAN, which groups Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam, decided on a date for expansion soon after the United States imposed sanctions on Myanmar, where ruling generals had just clamped down on the pro- democracy opposition.
China and Myanmar have grown closer over the last few years, causing concern in ASEAN. They signed an economic and trade agreement soon after the U.S. sanctions were imposed.
Beijing's claims to all islands and reefs in the South China Sea has landed it in several disputes with ASEAN members.
Hernandez said distrust of China in the region was rising. While saying it would not "undertake unilateral action that can cause tension and destabilize the region, (Beijing is) undertaking a creeping occupation of these islands", she said.
Manila and Beijing were locked in an angry dispute recently over Scarborough Shoal, a group of rocks barely visible at high tide and the construction by China of facilities at Mischief Reef in a part of the Spratlys claimed by the Philippines.
Wanandi said China "still has to learn how to behave" in the region.
"But I don't think, in the longer term, China will be a bully at all. With her opening up and her integration into the society regionally and globally, she will become an important and a responsible partner," he said.
The experts said ASEAN felt Yangon must be weaned away from China and the feeling overpowered qualms over Myanmar's internal politics.
"It's important in the view of ASEAN countries to have Myanmar included so that the resources and capabilities of Myanmar do not get under the control of only one power and you know China is a rising power," Hernandez said.
"The purpose of ASEAN is not to bring in nice guys into a club. The purpose of ASEAN is to live at peace among ourselves," said Noordin Sopiee, chairman of the Institute of Strategic and International Studies in Malaysia.
Said Hernandez: "We don't want to be told by Western powers on what to do. We feel we have earned a right to play an independent role in the region."