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Threats to Asian security brought into focus
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Last week, a US surveillance plane flew over China’s islands in the South China Sea. The plane reportedly departed the area after being warned to leave by the Chinese Navy.
This episode and other similar ones harken to statements made by Major General Chen Xuehui at the Third Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building in Asia (CICA) Think Tank Roundtable, an event held recently by Shanghai Institutes for International Studies to highlight security concerns in Asia.
Namely, Chen, who is a senior fellow at China’s Academy of Military Sciences, said that China will not intensify current disputes but will also not make any concessions on sovereignty.
Chen also pointed out at the roundtable that China cares about peripheral stability as much as any country in the region or any global power.
Indeed, China’s “One Belt, One Road” trade development strategy, a major trade development and economic integration project inspired by the historic Silk Road which connected China with the wider world, will lead to a greater focus on the strategic situations in neighboring regions and countries, especially those situated along major trade corridors, Chen said. This includes countries like Myanmar, Pakistan and Russia and even maritime areas such as the Malacca Straits and the Gulf Coast states.
Not only a Chinese idea
Other scholars present at the roundtable also expressed opinions on issues like China’s “One Belt, One Road” strategy. Professor Amrebayev Aidar from Kazakhstan talked about his country’s involvement in the far-reaching program.
“The project is not only an Chinese initiative — it is an international project. We need to think of this project as a common project for Asia. It is not only a Chinese idea,” he said.
Also at the roundtable, Sohail Amin, president of the Islamabad Policy Research Institute of Pakistan, said that both China and Pakistan believe that the Afghan peace process should be led by Afghans and supported by the international community.
“Together, Pakistan and China should work synergistically to achieve a durable peace in Afghanistan, thereby mitigating the decades-long hardships and agonies of the Afghan people,” said Amin.
He also said Asia is facing diverse challenges, and there are signs that suggest a new Asian order may be in the making. While the United States envisages the continuity of a unipolar world, he pointed out, a multi-polar Asia with multiple centers of power is taking shape.
Sheng Shiliang from the Xinhua News Agency said: “The US is using its traditional alliances in Asia, plus its Asia Pacific rebalancing strategy, to cope with China and Russia and has gained some success to some extent, especially its dealing with Russia,” Sheng said.
Sheng said the US and some other Western powers also use the media to exaggerate threats from emerging countries to traditional powers, which only adds to tensions in Asia. “Color revolutions, separatism, extremism and terrorism are stirring up turmoil — that’s why Asia needs a new system with more decision-making power and greater ability to act,” he added.
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