Selling the Chinese Dream the Xi Jinping Way at APEC Summit
Chinese President Xi Jinping emerged stronger after the two-day Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit, which was known to have been dominated by the United States in the recent past. APEC accepted two important proposals that were pushed by China to widen its own sphere of influence.
India, which did not attend despite being invited to join as an observer, may have to consider the implications of China's achievements at the summit. Pakistan and Bangladesh attended as observers, according to diplomats based in Beijing. Xi had invited Prime Minister Narendra Modi to attend during their meeting in September.
Xi clearly stole the show at the summit, with US President Barack Obama talking about accommodating China, observers said. Leaders of Asia-Pacific countries agreed to move towards a new free-trade zone strongly backed by China. The Beijing-supported Free Trade Area of the Asia-Pacific (FTAAP) is regarded as a challenge to the Transpacific Partnership (TPP), the US trade pact that excludes China and Russia. Though Obama said the US-backed TPP was not meant to contain China's influence, it was clear China had created a powerful rival to it in the form of the FTAAP. "Currently, the global economic recovery still faces many unstable and uncertain factors," Xi said."Facing the new situation, we should further promote regional economic integration and create a pattern of opening up that is conducive to long-term development."
The 21-nation APEC agreed to establish an anti-corruption network, which China needs more than any other country. Xi's government is engaged in a major anti-graft crackdowns but feels hampered by some foreign countries that provide visas and residency to fleeing officials accused of swindling funds. The Philippines, a US allay engaged in opposing China over the ownership of South China Sea islands, received largesse from Chinese functionaries. The presence of Japanese and Philippine leaders will make it easy for China to deal with territorial disputes in the East China Sea and South China Sea. Beijing's success in softening at least three territorial rivals — Japan, Philippines and Vietnam — has serious implications for India, which has a major border dispute with China.
The Winners, Losers and Absentees at APEC
Pakistani PM Nawaz Sharif, who attended the summit as an observer, returned with his hands full of goodies in the form of investments. Bangladeshi President Abdul Hamid, who also attended the APEC summit as an observer, expressed a desire to join the organization, and requested his Chinese hosts for opportunities to join other regional forum, according to China Central Television. "APEC's trade facilitation efforts, especially in the form of the Trade Facilitation Action Plan, are a commendable step to this end," Hamid said while requesting that Bangladesh be made a member.
"For the Asia-Pacific and the world at large, China's development will generate huge opportunities and benefits and hold lasting and infinite promise," Xi said.
He later welcomed Russian President Vladimir Putin, with whom he has a shared outlook on issues such as trade, investment and geopolitical interests, including a wariness of the United States.
It was "time to gather fruit" from "the tree of Russian-Chinese relations", Xi told Putin, as the two sides signed agreements stepping up their multi-billion-dollar agreement. Xi told the business meeting his "Asia-Pacific dream" was based on a "shared destiny" of peace, development and mutual benefit in the region and resources cooperation. The comments have echoes of the "Chinese dream" he regularly speaks of, an unspecified but much-discussed term with connotations of national resurgence. Beijing -- a veto-wielding permanent member of the UN Security Council -- is leveraging the decades-long boom that has made it the world's second-largest economy to increase its regional and global heft. But it stresses a policy of non-interference in other countries' internal affairs -- a stance that has enabled it to do business with leaders seen as pariahs in the West. Its relationship with the United States has been marred by tensions over trade disputes, cyber spying and human rights issues, while Beijing is embroiled in enduring disputes with Tokyo over islands in the East China Sea, and with rival claimants in the South China Sea. Under Xi, it has been asserting those claims more firmly.