Dealing with the dragon: Asean and China trade thrives amid disputes
Although wary of Beijing's territorial disputes with its member nations, Asean still boosted trade with China to US$350 billion last year
When China moved a 1,400-tonne oil rig into waters disputed with Vietnam on May 2, it seemed the two countries' US$50 billion trade relationship last year - 22 per cent bigger than in 2012 - was a distant consideration.
In much the same way, China's US$2.3 billion in foreign direct investment in Vietnam last year, up 20 per cent year on year, appeared little more than an afterthought to Vietnamese rioters who set fire to Chinese-owned factories in Hanoi that month in protest at what they said was infringement of their country's sovereignty.
China has been called a divider as well as a unifier in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean), the loose economic bloc comprising 10 nations, 622 million people and hundreds of distinct cultures and languages.
For some member states, Beijing's role has become increasingly schismatic.
"We are a bit worried about what happens with relations between China and some of the Asean countries," says Arifin Siregar, chairman of the strategic advisory board for private equity firm Ancora Capital and a former Indonesian ambassador to the United States.
The sentiment is shared by enterprises throughout the region, particularly at a time when economic and political cohesion within Asean have come to the fore. The bloc is in the throes of implementing an ambitious free-trade agreement and plans to integrate financial and regulatory standards by next year with the hope of lifting regional trade.