President Biden is snubbing the ASEAN Summit in Indonesia this week, although he is going to the G20 in India and then visiting Vietnam. Kamala Harris will represent the U.S., or whatever she really represents. Xi Jinping is attending neither the ASEAN nor the G20. Chinese Premier Li Qiang will attend the 26th China-ASEAN Summit, the 26th ASEAN Plus Three (APT) Summit, and the 18th East Asia Summit from Tuesday to Friday, and pay an official visit to Indonesia, according to the Chinese Foreign Ministry. Li will then attend the G20 summit scheduled on Saturday and Sunday in India.
The theme of the Summit is “ASEAN Matters: Epicentrum of Growth.”
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, when addressing the Global Town Hall 2023 on Saturday, said, “Attempts by certain forces outside the region to undermine peace in the South China Sea will not succeed, and the evil claws behind the scenes must be uncovered.”
A Global Times editorial states: “Even if Biden attends the summit, it is conceivable that what he brings to the summit will be repeated geopolitical and security rhetoric, such as the so-called ‘freedom of navigation in the South China Sea’ or ‘disputes over islands and reefs in the South China Sea.’ It will cause division on multilateral occasions and sow dissension, which is incompatible with the atmosphere of unity and cooperation at the summit. If these words are to be uttered by Harris, the negative impact may be relatively small. Therefore, Biden’s absence is not a pity, even less of a loss for the ASEAN summit.”
Immediately following the ASEAN Summit, China will host the 20th China-ASEAN Expo and the China-ASEAN Business and Investment Summit in Nanning, capital of China’s Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. The stats on China-ASEAN economic relations are substantial: China has been ASEAN’s largest trade partner for 14 years, while ASEAN has been China’s largest trade partner for 3 years. Bilateral trade is just under $1 trillion, while Chinese FDI in ASEAN is $380 billion, with 6,500 direct investments. Singapore, Malaysia, and Indonesia are the world’s largest recipients of BRI project investments.
