China's diplomatic outreach

Bantarto Bandoro, Editor, 'The Indonesian Quarterly' Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), Jakarta, bandoro@csis.or.id

Series of events in the Asia-Pacific region last month -- the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) summit in Bali, the APEC meeting in Bangkok, the visit of top Chinese leaders to Australia and to North Korea -- seemed to confirm the fact that China is building more confidence in its political and economic presence in the region; seeking a long-term strategic gains through a more pragmatic approach to its Asian neighbors.

In Southeast Asia, during the ASEAN Bali summit, China acceded to the Treaty of Amity and Cooperation (TAC), making it the first country outside Southeast Asia to join the club.

It is also the first time that China established a strategic partnership with a regional organization. China and ASEAN also signed a supplementary protocol to the Framework Agreement on Comprehensive Economic Cooperation and other documents. In the APEC meeting in Bangkok, China showed its resolve in becoming part of the core activities of the region.

Beijing has shown the region that it is confident and comfortable in handling international issues and pressure as well. China is trying to be the center of economic, as well as political and strategic, power. China's No. 2 man just returned from Pyongyang and succeeded in persuading North Korea to return to negotiation table. China is not yielding to the U.S. agenda, but definitely has its own.

What one notices of China's current foreign policy is its sophistication. China stressed the importance of increasing mutual trust on the basis of mutual respect, seeking common ground while putting aside differences and working to resolve whatever problems there might be through dialog and consultation in a joint effort to maintain peace and stability in the region.

This is perhaps the message the Chinese leadership is sending to the region, that China has no malevolent intent, despite its territorial quarrels with some of its neighbors.

What is clear from the current Chinese diplomatic moves is the want to promote a sense of a multilateral world, in which the United States will not dominate. China is cultivating its image as a peace-loving state. This image has been employed to project China as peaceful and the United States as belligerent.

The signing by China of the treaty of solidarity with ASEAN committed Beijing to look at ASEAN as a friend instead of a foe, since the TAC rules out the use of force to settle disputes. This has shown China's willingness to build a strategic alliance with its southern neighbors. China is seeking legal guarantees for being a good neighbor and partner.

On the one hand this strategic partnership indicate's China greater diplomatic confidence. On the other hand, the joint declaration on the strategic partnership will make ASEAN gradually believe that China will accept and respect the overall status of ASEAN and would not adopt a policy of dividing it up. Under complex and profound changes, the cooperation between China and ASEAN will certainly serve the immediate and long-term interests of both sides and is conducive to peace in the region.

The motivation of China's current Asian diplomatic strategy is primarily to secure China's foreign policy environment at a time when the regime in Beijing is now focused on sustaining economic development and political stability, and to prevent countries in the region from uniting against China by virtue of a perceived fear of a Chinese threat. It is not wrong to suggest that the focus of China's diplomatic strategy has been on countering the influence of the United States in Asia.

Another primary motivation is to calm regional fears and reassure Asian neighbors about how China might use its rising power and influence in the future. It is probably against such a background that China decided to use high level diplomacy and initiate more extensive and constant contacts with the countries in the region.

What is clearly noticed from the presence of Chinese leaders in the meetings in the Asia-Pacific region, as mentioned above, is the revelation of China's sense of place in eastern Asia. Through such important regional meetings, China is determined not only to stay in the region, without having to compromise core Chinese territory, security or other interests, but also to help boost the region, economically and politically. ASEAN and other countries in the region must now see the reality that a stronger, more developed and properly behaved China will certainly bring tremendous immediate and long-term benefits to other east Asian countries.

In an environment in which unilateral option is no longer on the diplomatic menu, mutual respect and trust and an understanding by the countries in the region of the impact of the current acute strategic problems is necessary. China's current diplomacy toward Asia seems to reflect such a sentiment, meaning that it is wished to be seen not only as a promoter of a multipolar world through which stability and cooperation can be pursued, but also as one that adheres to regional codes of conduct.

This is the same position that has long been sought by ASEAN. China is showing no signs of retreating strategically from Asia and it does not even need to do so. This is something that ASEAN must acknowledge. If China goes badly, be certain that eastern Asia will also suffer.