South China Sea: Beijing will need more than charm to win over Asean, observers say

Chinese leaders have visited nine Asean countries in recent weeks but free-trade deals and financial aid are unlikely to assuage the bloc’s deep-rooted concerns, analysts say

Strained ties with Vietnam, the current chair of Asean, will make China’s efforts to curry favour in the region even harder, academic says

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A dispute with the Philippines over fishing rights is just one of several battles Beijing is fighting in the South China Sea. Photo: Reuters

Published: 6:00pm, 18 Oct 2020Updated: 10:52pm, 18 Oct 2020

Beijing has been on a major charm offensive in Southeast Asia in recent weeks, but observers say it still has a long way to go to build trust in the region, given its multiple disputes with rival claimants to territorial, fishing and exploration rights in the South China Sea.

“Southeast Asia is important to China not just for its individual countries but for the strategic significance of Asean [the Association of Southeast Asian Nations],” said Li Mingjiang, an associate professor at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore.

Preventing the 10-nation bloc from pivoting towards the United States, rather than China, on key strategic issues was of huge importance to Beijing, he said.

But its disputes with Asean members is making that task more difficult.

Last week, the head of the Philippine Navy, vice-admiral Giovanni Carlo Bacordo, said he was preparing to dispatch more than 200 militiamen to protect the country’s fishermen near the Spratly Islands in the South China Sea in response to increased activity by Chinese militia there.