China's new security concept under multilateral diplomacy
- By Yan Xuetong
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E-mail China.org.cn, October 2, 2014
On Sept. 7, 2010, two Japanese Coast Guard patrol ships and a Chinese trawler clashed in waters off China's Diaoyu Islands. The following day, the Japanese Coast Guard illegally seized Zhan Qixiong, the 41-year-old trawler captain, drawing protests from the Chinese side. The incident revealed the great changes occurring in the Japanese psychology. As China's GDP has overtaken Japan's, Japan has felt threatened, which is the basis for the continued friction.
Compared with East Asia, Central Asia is the most stable region in terms of China's relations with its neighbors. The Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) is an international organization dedicated to solving border disputes and dealing with terrorism, separatism and religious extremism.
South Asia, meanwhile, is relatively calm. The trade volume with China is relatively small. Historically, there have been security issues between China and India, tending to lead to a kind of preventive or negative security cooperation between the two countries.
In the meanwhile, China also needs to well handle the relations between the initiative of building the Silk Road Economic Belt (SREB) and developing the SCO. Currently, the building of SREB is not based on the SCO, and the former involves more countries than the latter. At first, Russia took a stand against the SREB because it was not included. While attending the Winter Olympics in Sochi, however, President Xi welcomed Russia's participation in the SREB and this caused a change of attitude in Moscow.
South China Sea issues
Relatively speaking, the issues in the South China Sea are not as difficult to solve as the conflicts involving Japan because of the different nature of the disputes. In the South China Sea, the issue is a distribution of economic interests, while in East Asia, China and Japan are involved in strategic structural contradictions.
In 2013, Premier Li Keqiang proposed upgrading the China-ASEAN Free Trade Area as a means of solving territorial disputes and this has increased regional stability and prosperity. With ASEAN countries gaining more benefits, tensions have eased in the South China Sea.
Also, there is a difference between the Philippines and Vietnam in their disputes with China. Out of personal need and interests, President Aquino has adopted a policy of resisting China, as he wants to use further provocative policies to obtain greater economic benefits. After Aquino departs, it will be easier to improve the relationship between China and the Philippines.
The territorial disputes between China and Vietnam have existed for many years. Vietnam's future governments are not expected to undertake any big policy adjustments, either. China should enlarge regional cooperation with ASEAN to make Vietnam understand that it will be isolated and helpless if it doesn't participate.
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