China's regional development strategy: a progress report
- By Tim Collard
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E-mail China.org.cn, April 17, 2015
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[By Zhai Haijun/China.org.cn] |
The launch of the Chinese-led Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) has so far been a triumph for the project's initiators. Not only has the project received enthusiastic support throughout the region, but it has been a diplomatic success, in that U.S. objections to the plan have been largely ignored by the United States' economic and political allies: Britain, Australia, South Korea and most of Europe have been happy to engage in the negotiations over the bank's establishment.
This should not be read as a real split in the Western alliance structure: it is largely internal politics which prevents the United States from engaging too deeply with the project. President Obama has both houses of Congress ranged against him, and the 2016 election campaign is already under way. Traditionally, the U.S. Democrats are wary of international trade agreements, whereas the Republicans are notoriously unwilling to pay any more into international organizations. So it is hardly surprising that the United States is refusing to play.
Over the last few weeks China has used a series of meetings to set out more details of the way forward, seeking to engage her strategic partners ever more closely. The Boao Forum at the end of March was especially well timed for this purpose, with many future AIIB member states participating, and high-level discussions taking place, on general strategy – Asia's New Future – and on more specific elements of the scheme, e.g. joint infrastructural projects, especially the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road plan.
It would appear from the cordial atmosphere in which the Boao talks took place – hardly surprising in such agreeable surroundings – that China has little to fear in terms of opposition to the strategy; the mutual benefits to be derived are too clear. There is, however, one slightly tricky relationship to be integrated into the grand scheme, quite apart from that with the United States.
This month saw the 65th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between the newly established People's Republic of China and the newly independent state of India. These two states were then densely populated countries in which large parts of the population lived in desperate poverty. In the ensuing 65 years they have considerably alleviated that poverty and become two of the world's most dynamic developing countries, who maintain certain differences but recognize the need to work together for the interests of the Asian continent and of the developing world as a whole.
Following the turmoil which devastated the continent during much of the twentieth century, there are many parts of Asia in which territorial disputes still exist: in the Chinese phrase, these are "problems left over from history," and under consistent Chinese policy should be handled with great care but not allowed to stand in the way of constructive cooperation where this is possible. In this spirit, just prior to the diplomatic anniversary, the 18th round of talks on boundary issues was held in a constructive spirit. China's serious approach to these talks was demonstrated by the fact that China put up State Councillor Yang Jiechi, a very senior diplomatic figure, as its representative. Such long-standing historical questions cannot be resolved simply, but the commitment to restricting the emergence of conflicts was once more underlined.
