The Chinese Foreign Ministry said in a statement that Wang’s visit to Singapore, Malaysia, and Cambodia next week aims to “strengthen strategic communication with the three Southeast Asian countries.”
“China is also willing to work with the three countries … to promote economic recovery, maintain peace and tranquility, and deepen exchanges and mutual learning, as well as making greater contributions to peace, stability, development and prosperity for the region and the world,” the ministry added.
The three nations are all members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), a 10-nation bloc that doesn’t include China but with which it has a close relationship. Since 2020, ASEAN has been China’s biggest trading partner, and nearly every member state is also both part of China’s Belt and Road Initiative and a signatory to the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP). That trade bloc is the world’s largest, encompassing roughly 30% of the world’s population and 30% of its gross domestic product.
However, the visit comes just days after China and another ASEAN member, the Philippines, clashed over control of a submerged coral reef in the South China Sea.
Over the weekend, Chinese Coast Guard ships used their water cannons to drive off a pair of Philippine Navy supply ships near Second Thomas Shoal, located about 121 miles west of the Philippine island of Palawan. The ships were attempting to resupply a contingent of troops posted on the rusting derelict hull of what had once been the BRP Sierra Madre, a World War II-era transport ship that Manila deliberately grounded on the reef in 1999 in order to raise it above the high tide line.
However, China and the Philippines aren’t the only countries with overlapping claims on the myriad of islands and reefs in the South China Sea: so do Vietnam, Malaysia, and Brunei.
For nearly two decades, China and ASEAN have worked to make a document for governing interactions in the waterway to avoid escalation. Last month in Jakarta, the 11 nations held their second reading of the so-called Code of Conduct, and the working group pledged to complete the work within three years.
“The situation in the South China Sea actually affects the future regional security and economic development of the entire Asia-Pacific region,” Zhu Feng, an international relations professor at Nanjing University, was quoted as saying in Chinese media.
“It’s in the common interests of ASEAN whether the overall integration and regional cooperation can be effectively maintained, and the security and military confrontation between China and the United States in the South China Sea can be prevented from escalating,” he added.
Other dynamics are likely also at play in Wang’s trip, however. Late last month, Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia, and Malaysia rolled out a new program allowing citizens of any of the countries to make payments using any of the four nations’ currencies using a QR-code-based digital wallet. It’s a major move toward regional economic integration that foregoes exchanges through either the US dollar or Chinese yuan.