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China and Southeast Asia join hands

By WILLIAM FOREMAN
The Associated Press

AP Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao listens yesterday at the ASEAN summit in Vientiane, Laos.

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China's concerns about securing vital sea lanes and feeding its booming economy's ravenous appetite for oil and raw materials were seen as key motivations for the trade pact with the 10-nation Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) at the group's annual summit in Laos.

But some analysts believe the agreement shows how an increasingly bold China is forging new alliances that would reduce, and possibly eventually challenge, the United States' influence in Asia.

"China is using its huge market as a bait to lure ASEAN countries away from U.S. and Japan and build closer relations," said Chao Chien-min, a China watcher and political-science professor at Taiwan's National Chengchi University.

"I think what Beijing has in mind is to forge good economic and trade relations now and then increase exchanges in other areas, particularly in the military and security arena," Chao said.

The agreements signed yesterday removed tariffs on goods and created a mechanism to resolve ASEAN-China trade disputes. The accord aims to end all tariffs by 2010, drawing ASEAN's combined economies — worth $1 trillion — closer to China's $1.4 trillion economy.

Ong Keng Yong, ASEAN's secretary-general, said trade with China would speed up with the agreement. "So by the time this whole FTA (free-trade agreement) is done, as we want to by 2010, it should become quite substantial: $130 [billion] or $140 billion, perhaps," he told reporters.

In comparison, the annual ASEAN-U.S. trade is $120 billion and ASEAN-EU trade is $110 billion per year, he said.

Ong said it would be a long time before China surpassed the United States because Americans are bigger investors in the region.

China's deal with ASEAN was sealed as the group agreed to another pact that would build an ASEAN community, much like the European Union, by 2020.

The run-up to the summit in the Laotian capital was clouded by concerns that Thailand's crackdown last month on a protest that left 85 Muslims dead could inflame militants, and over Myanmar's failure to deliver on pledges to move toward democracy.
 
Some member countries indicated they might call those two ASEAN colleagues to task — in a break with the group's tradition of keeping out of domestic affairs. But both issues were kept off the table during the summit's ASEAN-only agenda yesterday, Thai government spokesman Jakrapob Penkair said.

Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra had threatened to walk out if the crackdown was raised at the summit of ASEAN members Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

On the summit sidelines, South Korea and ASEAN member Singapore concluded negotiations on a two-way, free-trade agreement. Japan and ASEAN member Philippines also agreed on major parts of a proposed accord, but officials from both sides said it would take six months to wrap it up.

With a long row of Laotian women in long silk skirts standing behind him, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao witnessed the signing of the ASEAN-China accord along with Southeast Asian leaders.

"ASEAN and Chinese relations have now entered a new era of complete cooperation," Wen told reporters.

The annual ASEAN summit consists of several closed-door meetings among leaders: the 10 Southeast Asian countries alone and in various combinations with summit partners China, Japan, South Korea and India.

This year, Australia and New Zealand received a one-time invitation to boost trade ties — their first appearance at the summit in more than a quarter-century. But Australia resisted ASEAN's calls to sign the group's nonaggression pact.