
Global Impact: Southeast Asia takes centre stage with Asean, G20 and Apec summits as Xi Jinping plays ‘diplomatic catch-up’
- Global Impact is a fortnightly curated newsletter featuring a news topic originating in China with a significant macro impact for our newsreaders around the world
- In this edition, we wrap up all the comings and goings from a series of high-profile meetings in Cambodia, Indonesia and Thailand
Unsurprisingly, while the main aims of the forums were to deepen economic cooperation as economies reel from the impacts of the coronavirus, pressing global issues ranging from Russia’s war in Ukraine and the heightened rivalry between the United States and China took centre stage.
One key result was that US Secretary of State Antony Blinken will make his first trip to China early next year, chiefly to strengthen lines of communication between Washington and Beijing.
Amid growing concerns over Washington’s commitment to Asia, Harris made it clear that the US was “here to stay”. “The US has an enduring economic commitment to the Indo-Pacific; one that is measured not in years but in decades and generations,” she said.
At the Asean summit in Phnom Penh, the crisis in Myanmar was one item on the agenda that was closely watched, as impatience grows among some countries in the 10-member Asean bloc given the lack of progress of an earlier peace plan struck with Myanmar’s military leaders.
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Deep Dives

What Xi Jinping’s ‘unscripted’ moments at G20, Apec reveal about future of diplomacy
- Chinese president’s warmth and candour make strong impression during overseas trip, but Beijing’s foreign policy hasn’t changed
- Face-to-face meetings to play crucial role in China’s post-pandemic international relations, observers say
President Xi Jinping’s unscripted moments during the summits in Southeast Asia last week offered rare insights into the country’s most powerful leader in decades and reassurances about his post-pandemic diplomacy.

Xi-Albanese meeting signals thaw in China-Australia ties, but experts say tensions remain
- Trade at top of Australian PM’s agenda in first formal talks between leaders in six years
- Chinese president says 50-year-old relationship needs ‘to be cherished by both sides’

Xi-Biden talks: Taiwan is still the big red line in China-US relations
- Both leaders used their discussions to stake out their positions on the self-ruled island
- The tensions remain and there are potential flashpoints ahead, analysts say
The two leaders met for more than three hours of talks on the sidelines of the G20 in Bali on Monday, with Xi Jinping telling Joe Biden that Taiwan was “the first red line” that could not be crossed in the China-US relationship.

Don’t weaponise food, energy security, China’s Xi Jinping’s tells G20
- Xi says source of world’s current crisis is a ‘supply chain problem’
- Chinese president calls for the reversal of ‘tech-related sanctions’, asks wealthy nations to contain fallout from interest rate hikes
Chinese President Xi Jinping blamed the world’s food and energy crisis on politicisation and “disturbance on cooperation” as he faced calls from other Group of 20 nations to help stop Russia’s war in Ukraine.
In his opening remarks to the G20 summit in Indonesia’s resort island of Bali on Tuesday, Xi said food and energy security was the “most pressing challenge” the world faced today, and called for the reversal of “tech-related sanctions” to solve problems.

East Timor in Asean may entrench divisions, make ‘picking off, co-opting by big powers’ more likely
- The tiny nation, which gets a lot of help from Australia and China, is set to become the 11th member of the Southeast Asian bloc
- Analysts say it joining may make existing group tensions worse, amid China-US rivalry in region and the competition for ‘hearts and minds’

As US and China vie for Asia-Pacific sway, France warns against divided world
- US Vice-President Kamala Harris and Chinese President Xi Jinping reiterate Asia-Pacific commitments as leaders gather for the Apec summit
- US-China power struggle poses ‘a big challenge’, French President Emmanuel Macron says, as he warns against having to pick sides

Peng Liyuan joins diplomatic whirl in first overseas trip since coronavirus pandemic began
- Peng accompanied her husband, President Xi Jinping, to Indonesia and Thailand for last week’s G20 and Apec summits
- She attended events held alongside those meetings in what was seen as an effort to show a more friendly side of China
Global Impact is a fortnightly curated newsletter featuring a news topic originating in China with a significant macro impact for our newsreaders around the world.
