"Pouring money" into the Mekong sub-region - China increases "soft power"?

(Baonghean.vn) - At the 5th Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS) Summit held in Thailand, Chinese Prime Minister Li Keqiang pledged financial support to neighboring countries along the Mekong River.

Along with other recent "heavy" investments by China, analysts say China is continuing to promote its diplomatic strategy of détente - a strategy that China began "testing" a few months ago after a year of causing many storms in the region.

Chinese Premier Li Keqiang at the Greater Mekong Subregion Summit. Photo: news.cn

With the goal of sustainable and comprehensive development in the Mekong sub-region, the leaders attending the conference emphasized the factors of infrastructure connectivity and trade facilitation as important conditions to promote regional cooperation and form a Mekong sub-region community in the future. In response to the needs and calls of the Mekong sub-region in the ASEAN region, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang quickly made strong financial commitments including 1 billion USD for infrastructure connectivity projects, 490 million USD for poverty reduction and 1.6 billion USD in the form of special loans for Chinese export products. In addition, China also agreed to invest 16.4 million USD to dredge the Mekong River and prevent natural disasters. In addition to making strong financial commitments, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang did not forget to reiterate China's stance of "respecting and committing to peace and friendship and supporting peace in the region in the spirit of neighborliness and friendship".

China’s behavior at the GMS Summit, along with its “winged” words about peace and stability, is said to continue to portray an image of a new China, full of enthusiasm and ready to make friends – an image that China has been trying to build in recent months. This is also part of the “conciliatory diplomacy” policy that Chinese President Xi Jinping mentioned at the APEC Summit held in Beijing last November. At that time, Mr. Xi emphasized the enhancement of “soft power”, presenting a good image of China with the message “We support the construction of a new form of international relations, reinforced by cooperation based on win-win thinking”.

China’s more conciliatory foreign policy has been demonstrated through a series of actions in consecutive major conferences such as the APEC Summit in Beijing, the Southeast Asia Summit in Myanmar, and the G20 Summit in Australia. There, China established a temporary détente with Japan, reached a number of agreements on climate change and military with the United States, and completed many trade agreements. Particularly with the Southeast Asian region, China has been quite “generous” when promising loans of up to 20 billion USD to build infrastructure, then committed to a separate investment of 8 billion USD for Myanmar in the energy, infrastructure, telecommunications and finance sectors.

The world has quickly recognized the changes in China's foreign policy towards Southeast Asian countries. The Wall Street Journal commented that Chinese President Xi Jinping has "created a new diplomatic whirlwind" by showing the international community that China is quite comfortable seeking common ground with neighboring countries that are wary of China. Meanwhile, Ms. Merriden Varrall, a China expert at the Lowy Institute for International Policy in Sydney, Australia, commented that "China is experimenting with using aid and development as tools to achieve soft power."

“Soft power” is now considered a component of national comprehensive strength, and many powers in the world are trying to achieve this power. However, China’s moves towards the Southeast Asian region have attracted more public attention because over the past year, China has been seen as the party that has caused many storms in the region, most notably the Haiyang Shiyou 981 drilling rig incident. In disputes with countries in the region, China has always shown off its superior military strength as a way to assert its “hard power”.

Therefore, when China adopts new diplomatic strategies, presenting a friendlier image to countries in the region, analysts still recognize that soft gestures in the economic and trade fields often go hand in hand with China's tough stance on security and sovereignty. For example, at the ASEAN Summit in Myanmar, in parallel with proposing a friendship treaty with ASEAN, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang continued to affirm that he would only resolve the East Sea dispute directly with the countries involved.

Soft in the tough, that is the assessment that many experts have made when talking about China’s recent moves. China’s generous financial commitments at the recent Greater Mekong Subregion Summit are another step in China’s “soft” extreme. However, to successfully build the image of a country that is “warm and ready to make friends”, it also depends on how China handles the “hard” extreme in its foreign policy, and the root is how China handles conflicts with neighboring countries.

Thuy Ngoc