Chinese President Xi Jinping said Tuesday that China will paint with Singapore to “overcome distractions” in order to maintain regional stability, in statements that some experts interpreted as a sophisticated “reminder” to take sides as Washington and Beijing compete for the South China Sea and other industry problems to generate to human rights.
The statements, made to Singapore’s Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, in a phone call, come a day after Washington rejected Beijing’s territorial claims in the South China Sea and followed the claims of China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs that the United States is disrupting peace and regional stability in the country. Waters
“Xi said that bilateral relations were at a new old starting point and that both sides deserve to hold celebrations in flexible and varied ways, to deepen the public’s friendship,” China’s official Xinhua news firm reported.
“China is in a position to paint with Singapore to succeed on distractions and jointly safeguard regional peace and stability.”
The Chinese embassy in Singapore said Xi spoke to Lee to congratulate him on winning the city state’s July 10 general election, in which the ruling People’s Action Party retained its decades-long grip on power.
On the same day, Xi met with Thai Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha to discuss, among other things, greater cooperation in drug progression for Covid-19, state broadcaster CCTV reported.
Thailand and the Philippines are only two of the 10 Southeast Asian states that have security alliances with the United States. Singapore’s Foreign Ministry, in a three-paragraph statement, said Xi in its appeal to Lee noted that it is the 30th anniversary of China-Singapore relations.
The two leaders welcomed bilateral cooperation to address the consequences of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Singapore is one of the first countries to have an “accelerated” agreement with China. It has reached an agreement with six continental provinces to facilitate the resumption of air for official and advertising purposes.
While some observers described the exchange as a so-called post-choice regime of the Chinese leader, Dylan Loh, an assistant professor of foreign studies at Nanyang University of Technology, said it was “inevitable” that other people speculate that there is more.
He cited disagreements between the United States and China over the pandemic and the escalation of maritime tensions.
Global Times, published under the auspices of Communist Party spokesman the People’s Daily, quoted Chen Xiangmiao, an assistant researcher at the National Institute for Maritime Studies of Southern China, saying that Xi Lee and Prayuth’s phone call, “two of ASEAN’s top countries send a transparent signal to the United States that China’s relations with the countries of this region are not as fragile as Washington imagined.”
According to the Global Times report, Chen said that ‘Singapore is called a’ stratetre ‘in the region and, as Lee has stated publicly, ASEAN countries need to take sides between China and the United States, which necessarily provides direction for ASEAN countries. . ‘position between the two superpowers’.
Singapore’s leader said in the past that the city-state will not take sides and has tried to establish fair relations with the two superpowers.
He highlighted Singapore’s strong security ties with the United States, to which it buys equipment, and how U.S. corporations invest more in Singapore than corporations in any other country.
He also noted that China is Singapore’s main trading partner.
China asserts that an extension of the South China Sea and 4 Southeast Asian states (Malaysia, Vietnam, Philippines and Brunei) have counterclaims, as do Taiwan.
On monday, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo called China’s claims “totally illegal,” and provided Washington’s particular assistance for a 2016 foreign court ruling opposed to China’s claims about ancestral rights in disputed waters.
David Stilwell, U.S. Undersecretary of State for East Asia, said at a forum the next day that there is a “place” to apply sanctions to Chinese officials and corporations pursuing “illegal” accusations in the South China Sea.
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Loh said the “distractions” mentioned in the phone call were an allusion to the South China Sea and a “sweet reminder that Singapore-China relations are more important” than what happens on the disputed waterway.
Drew Thompson, a former Pentagon official guilty of managing bilaterally with China, Taiwan and Mongolia, described the verbal exchange as a “veiled coup” in the US statement.
“It’s probably also a sophisticated reminder to Singapore that if they don’t do it in China on these issues, China can create distractions like it did last time for Singapore,” Thompson said.
He recalled how Singapore’s beijing appointments were tested in November 2016, when nine armored cars returning from Taiwan, where singapore’s army conducted education, were seized in Hong Kong.
This led to suspicion that this resolution is a way for China to warn Singapore of its close relations with Taipei. “It’s a” distraction, ” he said.
Thompson said the most recent exchange was “intentionally indistinct to invoke concern in the brains of a small state and let that smaller state find out what its worst concerns are that China may realize.”
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Still, Loh felt Singapore would remain consistent in its approach towards the territorial disputes and would not alter its position just because of the US statements.
However, he said the United States would put pressure on Singapore, and the 10-member bloc of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean), to decide on its side.
“Still, I don’t think Asean or Singapore will automatically start their appearance braishly because it would in fact go against Asean and the interests of its member states,” he said.
Thompson cautioned against painting all Asean member states with the same brush, saying they had different interests, but added that while most supported international law in principle, their governments were unlikely to make any public statements.
“Philosophically, I think they agree with Pompeo’s statement, but in practice they don’t need to worry and be the subject of China’s wrath,” he said.
“The safest thing for Southeast Asian countries is to do nothing at all.”
Chan Heng Chee , Singapore’s former ambassador to the US, said that the US-China rivalry had deteriorated “far faster than anyone anticipated”.
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“There is no doubt that we have really broad interests and relationships with any of the powers, we have never been there before.
“We have felt the tension and tug-of-war of the two powers,” he said at an online convention organized through the Singapore-based Institute for Political Studies on Wednesday night.
Chan added that the South China Sea was now noted as the “site of the wonderful new game” and that there was no consensus among ASEAN countries on how to respond.
“What happens is that we are witnessing the emergence of a merger of like-minded countries that only need to continue to do this business, supporting this expansion and development, at a time when the two giants are caught up in greater competition. Array,” he said.
“Singapore will not be able to make a definitive selection such as marriage. Nor is [it] necessary. You won’t have to make selections possible for as long as possible.”
“Selection will be exercised across the country to align with the United States or China, depending on the projects that the two powers put on the table.”
This article was first published in South China Morning Post.