Chinese Premier Li Keqiang (left), Brunei Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah (right) and Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra attend a ceremony to mark the 10th anniversary of China-ASEAN strategic partnership in Bandar Seri Begawan, Brunei, on October 9 [LIU WEIBING]

Though President Xi Jinping's trip to Southeast Asia that included the APEC meeting and Premier Li Keqiang's presence at the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Summit were among the scheduled visits for China's two top leaders, their frequent meeting with Southeast Asian nation leaders highlights the importance the new Chinese leadership attaches to the region and reflects China's diplomatic strategy of shaping a mutually beneficial and win-win relationship with the country's neighbors.

In the half year since the inauguration of China's new leadership in March, Xi and Li have on various occasions met with state leaders from nine of the10 ASEAN nations more than 20 times, a high rate of frequency rarely seen between China and countries from other regions.

A closer neighborhood

Su Hao, a professor of international studies with Beijing-based China Foreign Affairs University, said Southeast Asia is one of the most important areas of China's diplomacy with neighboring countries.

"China needs to sustain a stable surrounding environment and consolidate the relationship with its neighbors if it wants to play a greater role in the world arena. Southeast Asia takes a crucial position for China in terms of building a peaceful and stable neighborly environment, as the region is a strategic channel for China from both land and sea," said the professor.

China and Southeast Asian countries have long been cooperation partners in the economy, culture and politics. For decades, China has been committed to developing good-neighborly relations and partnerships with neighboring countries, cementing peaceful relations with Southeast Asian nations by fostering goodwill.

Su held China and ASEAN are to a certain degree an integrated economy with production and marketing closely linked with each other. The developments of the two rely heavily on each other.

Since 2003, China and ASEAN have established the strategic partnership for peace and prosperity, leading to a "golden decade" of cooperation over the past decade. By advancing practical cooperation, China and ASEAN have set up the world's largest free trade area among developing countries. China is now ASEAN's biggest trading partner and ASEAN China's third largest trading partner. In 2012, two-way trade exceeded $400 billion, five times that of 10 years ago; mutual investment totaled over $100 billion, three times that of 2003.

As ASEAN aims to become an economically integrated, politically cohesive and socially responsible ASEAN community by 2015, participating nations need to foster a greater degree of close connections with East Asian powers including China to stimulate its economic potential, said Su.

During Xi's latest trip to Indonesia, he called for joint efforts to build a more closely-knit community of common destiny between China and ASEAN. And at the 16th China-ASEAN leaders' meeting held in Brunei on October 9, Premier Li also stressed China's good-neighbor policy with ASEAN is a long-term strategy and that Southeast Asia is the priority of China's neighboring diplomacy.

Against a backdrop in which the global economic recovery is still weak and some of the ASEAN nations are being threatened by the international financial crisis, observers say that Chinese leaders' frequent visit to Southeast Asia is conducive to building confidence for regional development and shows China's firm position of benefiting its neighbors. ASEAN nations also increasingly feel the good faith and friendliness of China.

Addressing doubts

While China and ASEAN nations have kept a close and mutually beneficial economic relationship, some members have expressed doubts about China's growing strength in light of ongoing maritime disputes between China and some ASEAN nations.

However, Chinese observers are not overly concerned about the maritime disputes in the South China Sea.

Ruan Zongze, Vice President of the China Institute of International Studies (CIIS), believed that the South China Sea disputes should not and will not affect the entire China-ASEAN relationship. "The dispute is only a tiny part of the whole China-ASEAN relations," Ruan said.

Professor Su echoed Ruan, saying that the maritime dispute is only a problem at the technical level between China and some individual countries. It is not related to the overall relations between China and ASEAN.

In a joint written interview with the media from ASEAN countries ahead of his official visit to Brunei, Thailand and Viet Nam, Premier Li said it is understandable that some neighbors are concerned about China's growing supremacy as there are historically quite a few stories of big powers vying for hegemony.

But Li stressed that times have changed. In the 21st century, the trend toward peace and development has gained momentum. China has benefited much from such a peaceful environment for development, so there is no reason for China to move away from that path.

The premier also quoted an old Chinese saying, "Treat the others as you would like to be treated," to describe China's diplomatic principle.

He noted that China and ASEAN countries have had many in-depth discussions and reached consensus on the question of the South China Sea. "As long as we stay committed to this consensus and act in accordance with mutually agreed upon principles, the South China Sea region will remain peaceful and stable," he added.

In the joint interview, Premier Li also proposed building a maritime cooperation partnership between China and ASEAN nations, working together to build the Maritime Silk Road of the 21st century.

Luo Yongkun, a researcher on Southeast Asian studies with the China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations, said the maritime cooperation partnership could not only help strengthen the maritime connectivity and deepen practical cooperation on marine economy, but also would be conducive to the proper settlement of the existing maritime disputes and safeguarding the peace and stability of the regional waters.

In the Chairman's Statement of the 23rd ASEAN Summit, ASEAN and China reaffirmed the collective commitments under the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea (DOC)—signed in Phnom Penh in November 2002—to ensure the resolution of disputes by peaceful means. In accordance with universally recognized principles of international law, including the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, the nations agreed to refrain from resorting to the threat or use of force, while exercising self-restraint in the conduct of activities.

Su noted that political and security cooperation between China and ASEAN is as important as economic cooperation. Especially in terms of safeguarding the peace and stability of the South China Sea, China and ASEAN share common interests and should work together to meet each other halfway.

During a meeting with ASEAN nation leaders, Premier Li also proposed signing a treaty on good-neighborliness, friendship and cooperation with ASEAN.

Su said that the treaty, if signed, would lay a very solid foundation for the peace and security cooperation between China and ASEAN. It could act as a stabilizer for China-ASEAN relations even amid the maritime disputes.

Ruan of the CIIS believed that fixing the China-ASEAN friendly relationship in the form of law will relieve those ASEAN members that are skeptical of China's rapid rise. If such legal framework is established, these relations will be upgraded substantially.

In the joint statement after the just concluded China-ASEAN leaders' meeting, leaders of China and ASEAN agreed to work for greater achievements of the two-way relationship over the next decade. They vowed to advance and deepen the ASEAN-China strategic partnership for mutual benefit and continue to fully and effectively implement the 2011-2015 Plan of Action to Implement the Joint Declaration on the ASEAN-China Strategic Partnership for Peace and Prosperity.

Moreover, Chinese observers also claimed that in addition to establishing a China-ASEAN community of common destiny and legal framework for friendship, the two sides should create a cultural community based on their common spiritual legacy and cultural heritage.