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WASHINGTON: China may be making huge strides in projecting “soft
power” in Southeast Asia amid US preoccupation in Iraq, but the
region remains wary of the Asian giant’s military ambitions,
experts say.
Once a US stomping ground, Southeast Asia is
seeing greater Chinese involvement in diplomacy, trade, investment,
cultural and educational exchanges as well as foreign aid to less
developed states.
A critical component of China’s “soft
power” diplomacy is the emphasis on engaging the region as a
whole, unlike the United States, which has focused primarily on
bilateral relations.
The United States helped set up the Association
of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) as a bulwark against communism 40
years ago, but today China is “increasingly the most influential
external actor in dealing with Asean,” said Joshua Kurlantzick, a
visiting scholar at the Washington-based Carnegie Endowment for
International Peace.
Also, unlike the United States, China has
acceded to Asean’s Treaty of Amity and Cooperation, a
non-aggression treaty, and forged a free trade agreement with the
group comprising Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia,
Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.
“This makes it appear like China is more
committed to regional free trade, and there has been much less
protest in Southeast Asia against the China deal than against some
of the deals with the US,” said Kurlantzick, author of Charm
Offensive: How China’s Soft Power Is Transforming the World.
When Washington tightened visa policies after
the September 11, 2001, attacks, Beijing moved to aggressively
encourage Chinese education in the region, funding primary schools,
setting up Confucian institutes at universities, and offering
scholarships and visitor programs for rising Asian leaders,
Kurlantzick said.
“As a result, China is going to train many of
the next generation of Asean opinion leaders, who once would have
gone to the US or the UK or Australia,” he said.
Despite China capitalizing on US policy mistakes
to boost its charm offensive in the region, President George W.
Bush’s administration seems unperturbed.
“Having more China does not mean less US in
Southeast Asia,” said US Assistant Secretary of State Christopher
Hill. “There is plenty of room for all of us and we don’t see
China as a ‘winner,’” he said.
--AFP
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