China’s poodle Cambodia is currently chairing ASEAN, and it’s a great opportunity for the communist nation to exploit the Southeast Asian alliance to its own advantage. Well, China aims to solidify its claims over the South China Sea; and it is pushing Cambodia to lobby ASEAN in China’s favour.
China is also pushing Cambodia to legitimize Myanmar’s Junta regime even when ASEAN nations continue to raise their human rights concerns. However, China’s plans to use Cambodia to further its own interests have hit a roadblock now. Indonesia, Malaysia and Vietnam have now vowed to foil China’s plans to toss around ASEAN and teach its poodle Cambodia a lesson of its life.
Why does China want to exploit Cambodia’s chairmanship in ASEAN?
Consider this– Indonesia and Malaysia this Thursday criticized the Cambodian prime minister’s controversial trip to crisis-ridden Myanmar last week. Hun Sen, the Cambodian PM last week overlooked ASEAN’s concerns and paid a visit to Myanmar at the behest of China. ASEAN accuses the Burmese military of reneging on the five-point consensus and has declared an unofficial boycott of the Junta regime.
That’s why Myanmar’s coup leader Min Aung Hlaing was not even invited to the late last year’s ASEAN summit. Before that, ASEAN’s special envoy had also cancelled his trip to Myanmar after he was told he won’t be allowed to meet democratic leaders such as Aung San Suu Kyi. However, China is desperate to mainstream the military regime of Myanmar in ASEAN to get some geopolitical favours from Myanmar’s new ruler.
China also wants to secure a favourable South China Sea Code of Conduct through its influence over Cambodia.
Indonesia and Malaysia object to Cambodia PM’s visit to Myanmar
Indonesia, Malaysia and Vietnam very well understand this China’s strategy; and that’s why they are now openly criticizing the Cambodian prime minister and warning him of severe consequences.
Indonesia’s foreign ministry recently urged Cambodia to stick to what the 10-member regional bloc had agreed to in meetings. Abdul Kadir Jailani, director-general for Asia, the Pacific and Africa at the Indonesian Ministry of Foreign Affairs vehemently criticized Sen’s visit by saying that “we hope that the Cambodian chairmanship can consistently implement what has been agreed [to] in previous ASEAN meetings – the implementation of the five-point consensus – and make efforts to achieve significant progress.”
Malaysian Foreign Minister, Saifuddin Abdullah, also raised his concerns over Hun Sen’s visit to Myanmar by saying that “we feel that because he has already assumed the chair of ASEAN, he could have probably consulted if not all, a few other ASEAN leaders and seek their views as what he should do if he were to go to Myanmar.”
Vietnam also raking up border issues against China
Similarly, Vietnam is now also gearing up to create troubles for China to prevent it from running over the regional bloc. China wanted to use Covid to harass Vietnam; however, now Vietnam is giving it back to China in the most ruthless way possible!
Vietnam is making it a point to expose China’s economic coercion. It has publicly blamed China’s overzealous Pandemic restrictions. In a statement issued on December 31, Vietnam’s Ministry of Industry and Trade described Beijing’s Pandemic-prevention measures as “over necessary”.
Beijing was successfully using the China-Cambodia nexus to drive a wedge in ASEAN, and get Cambodia to draft a favourable South China Sea Code of Conduct.
Also read: Japan and Australia in ASEAN’s defence hotline is adding to China’s horrors
However, Vietnam is holding firm. It has picked up an ongoing conflict with China and has inflated it into a huge diplomatic issue. With this, Vietnam is mobilising anti-China sentiment in ASEAN all over again. And with the growing anti-China sentiment, Xi Jinping’s hopes of drafting a favourable Code of Conduct too get dashed.
This is how the three major nations of the ASEAN bloc are now braving China’s brazen attempts to split the ASEAN down the middle! China’s intimidation and its nefarious plans to further its interests at the expense of ASEAN’s unity are now backfiring and enabling the bloc to make up an even stronger front against the Chinese tyranny.