JAKARTA: China’s foreign minister Wang Yi cautioned on Monday (Jul 11) in a policy speech in the Indonesian capital that countries should avoid used as “chess pieces” by major power in a region that he said was in danger of being reshaped by geopolitical factors.
Addressing the particular Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) secretariat in Jakarta, Wang, who was talking through a translator, said many countries in the area were under pressure to take sides.
“We should insulate this particular region from geopolitical calculations … through being used as chess pieces from major power rivalry plus from coercion, ” he said, adding: “The future of our own region should be in our own hands. ”
Southeast Asia has long been an area of geopolitical friction between major powers provided its strategic importance, with countries in the area now wary of becoming caught in the middle of US-China rivalry.
Heightening tensions, China statements almost the entire South China Sea as the territory based on what says are historic maps, putting this at odds with some ASEAN countries which say the statements are inconsistent with international law.
Wang’s speech arrives just days after he attended a G20 foreign ministers’ meeting in Bali and amid intense Chinese diplomacy which has seen him create a string of prevents across the region within recent weeks.
On the sidelines of the G20, Wang held a five-hour meeting with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken with both describing their first in-person talks since Oct as “candid”.
Wang said on Monday he had informed Blinken both sides should discuss the particular establishment of rules for positive connections and to jointly support regionalism in the Asia-Pacific.
“The primary elements are to back up ASEAN centrality, uphold the existing regional company framework, respect every other’s legitimate legal rights and interests in the Asia-Pacific instead of planning to antagonise or contain the other side, ” Wang said.
Responding to a question about Taiwan after his speech, Wang said Washington “by distorting and hollowing out there the One China policy, is trying to play the particular Taiwan card in order to disrupt and include China’s development”.
Tensions between Beijing and Taipei possess escalated in recent months because China’s military conducted repetitive air missions over the Taiwan Strait, the waterway separating the island from China.
China considers Taiwan its “sacred” area and has never renounced the use of force to ensure eventual unification.
Washington says this remains committed to the One China policy and does not encourage independence for Taiwan, however the United States is required to offer Taiwan with the way to defend itself below its US Taiwan Relations Act.
“The two edges across the (Taiwan) Strait will enjoy peaceful growth. But when the one-China principle is arbitrarily challenged or even sabotaged, there will be dark atmosphere or even ferocious thunder storms across the strait, ” Wang said.