Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi meets with envoys of ASEAN countries in Beijing on Tuesday. Photo:Xinhua

Chinese officials will focus on pragmatic cooperation and promote multilateralism and free trade at a series of meetings of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), where negotiations for a regional trade pact will get a fresh boost from their leaders' commitment.

At a time of profound challenges for the global economy stemming from rising trade protectionism, China's calls to strengthen regional cooperation and safeguard the global multilateral trade system will likely top the agenda in Bangkok, Thailand, where the meetings will be held, Chinese experts noted. 

Chinese officials and experts said on Wednesday that Western officials will likely seek to hype the so-called China threat conspiracies, but their attempts to stir up tensions in the South China Sea will take a back seat.

Chinese Premier Li Keqiang will attend meetings at the ASEAN summit, which includes the 22nd China-ASEAN summit and the East Asia Summit (EAS), according to Chinese officials. 

Focus on free trade

"China expects the leaders' summit to focus on pragmatic cooperation and jointly deal with downward pressure [in the world economy]… multilateralism and free trade," Chen Xiaodong, vice minister of foreign affaris, told a press briefing on Tuesday, adding Li will propose 20 initiatives to strengthen ties under the EAS mechanism.  

Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi echoed that sentiment in a meeting with ambassadors of the 10 ASEAN members in Beijing on Tuesday night, when the two sides agreed to strive for complete negotiations for the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) by year's end and jointly safeguard multilateralism and free trade, the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement on Wednesday.

In June, ASEAN surpassed the US to become China's second-largest trading partner, with two-way trade rising 10.5 percent year-on-year to nearly 2 trillion yuan ($283.2 billion) in the first half of 2019. 

To further boost trade, China and ASEAN members implemented an upgraded free trade agreement in August and the two sides are pushing forward negotiations for the RCEP, the largest trade bloc covering half of the global economy, to be completed by the end of the year.

"I think RCEP will be a hot topic at the ASEAN summit and further consensus will be reached to wrap up the deal," Chen Fengying, a research fellow at the China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations in Beijing, told the Global Times Wednesday. 

"US trade unilateralism and protectionism is in a way pushing forward the talks because there is an urgency for these countries that rely on free trade," she said.

Since being launched in 2013, 27 rounds of negotiations have been conducted, with the last round in July in China, where officials hailed "positive progress."

Smearing failure

Western officials, led by the US, have been using the ASEAN summit to stir up tensions in the South China Sea, say Chinese experts.

 At last year's summit in Singapore, US Vice President Mike Pence claimed China was engaging in "territorial expansion" in the South China Sea.

This year, the US is sending what has been described as a downgraded delegation to the meetings led by Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs Robert O'Brien and Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross.

"No doubt the US and the West will make some disharmonious noises about the South China Sea at the ASEAN summit, but that will not change the overall theme of focusing on cooperation," Guo Yanjun, director of the institute of Asian studies at China Foreign Affairs University in Beijing, told the Global Times on Wednesday.

The US and its Western allies would not give up any chance at such high-profile meetings to spread their "China threat" conspiracy and stir up tension in the South China Sea, but such attempts would not succeed because most countries want to focus on economic cooperation, Guo said.

Leaders will likely carry forward consultations about the Code of Conduct for the South China Sea, Guo said.


Newspaper headline: China officials at ASEAN to focus on regional trade