The theme of the Boao Forum for Asia (BFA) annual conference, held in Boao, Hainan province, on April 18-21, was “A World in Change: Join Hands to Strengthen Global Governance and Advance Belt and Road Cooperation.” President Xi Jinping, in his keynote speech at the opening ceremony of the event, said, “Where should humanity go from here? What kind of future should we create for future generations? As we try to answer these important questions, it is crucial that we bear in mind the shared interests of mankind and make responsible and wise choices.”
Since the beginning of the 21st century, the center of gravity in the global power balance has been shifting from the West toward the East. The United States has recognized this overall trend but refused to accept the fact that its dominance in the world is waning. During his term in office, US president Barack Obama introduced “Pivot to Asia” in a major strategic adjustment. Then his successor, Donald Trump, further adjusted US global strategy by naming China as a major strategic rival of the US. As part of the revamped strategy, Trump also adopted the “Indo-Pacific Strategy”, which has been inherited by his successor, President Joe Biden. The goal of that strategy is simple: obstruct and sabotage Asia’s rise.
US decision-makers are well aware that it is much more difficult to obstruct and sabotage Asia’s rise from the outside than from the inside. That is why they are trying to isolate or marginalize China by flattering India and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations as part of the Indo-Pacific Strategy. Another step in that direction sees the US dragging India, Japan and Australia into a “quadripartite security dialog platform”, sometimes viewed as an Asia-Pacific version of NATO.
Japan today is the third-largest economy in the world and is regarded by the US as its prime partner in containing China. The current prime minister of Japan, Yoshihide Suga, became the first foreign head of state that US President Biden received in the White House since taking office — just two days before the BFA annual conference opened in China. After their meeting, the two heads of state issued a joint statement titled “US-Japan Global Partnership for a New Era,” which reads: “Today, the United States and Japan renew an Alliance that has become a cornerstone of peace and security in the Indo-Pacific region and around the world.”
As the Asian, Indo-Pacific and global situations become increasingly treacherous, Hong Kong must pick up the pace of integrating its own development into the overall development strategy of the country in the days to come
China advocates a community of shared future for mankind in pursuit of peaceful coexistence and joint development by various civilizations; whereas the US and Japan are trying to split the region as well as the world by drawing a line between different ideologies and social systems.
Some people assumed that Biden inviting Chinese and Russian heads of state to attend a climate summit via video link organized by the US indicates there is still room for cooperation between China and the US, but they apparently overlooked the Strategic Competition Act of 2021, bipartisan legislation pushing the Biden administration to go all-out in containing China. Most Western media saw the climate summit as Biden’s attempt to reassert American leadership in the world as well as making China work harder and faster in reducing carbon emissions.
US behavior harms Asia and the world in general. The BFA has issued a report titled “Free Trade Agreements: Asia’s Choice”, which notes that trade within the Asia region in proportion to worldwide trade volume barely increased in 2010 through 2019. Part of the reason is that overlapping rules in bilateral trade agreements among economies in the region made it harder for enterprises to profit from the deals than otherwise. It therefore calls for a free trade agreement covering all countries and regions in Asia, while also expressing concern over the fact that domestic policies and levels of development of countries and regions in Asia are so different that countries and regions in Asia should do their best in calibrating their domestic policies and development goals accordingly. Underdeveloped economies in particular are encouraged to join the free trade pact and study digital trade rules as soon as possible.
In a way the report makes sense but, from a macro-perspective, it does not mention the impact of increased intervention and interference by the US through its Asia and global strategy adjustments in 2010 through 2019. There is no doubt US intervention and interference made it harder for Asian economies to benefit from free trade agreements within the region and therefore should not be underestimated.
The BFA has also published a report called “Asian Economic Outlook and Integration Progress Annual Report 2021”, which says major Asian economies are still highly dependent on Asian factories, and most Asian economies depend more on Asian factories year by year. In 2019, Hong Kong, Indonesia, the Philippines and South Korea had the highest reliance on Asian factories. Although the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 disrupted some of the production networks of Asian factories, it did not shift the center of Asia’s global value chain. Asian factories rely on China to a much higher degree than the United States, Japan and other Asian economies. Among Asia’s top 22 parts and components in terms of trade volume, 18 of them rely mainly on China.
The Asian economy’s considerable dependence on China for sustainable growth is motivating the US to quicken the implementation of its Indo-Pacific Strategy. As the Asian, Indo-Pacific and global situations become increasingly treacherous, Hong Kong must pick up the pace of integrating its own development into the overall development strategy of the country in the days to come.
As Luo Huining, head of the Central People’s Government Liaison Office in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, pointed out in a speech at the opening ceremony of the annual National Security Education Day two weeks ago, “A Hong Kong friend has rightly put it, ‘the small boat of Hong Kong sails confidently when it is fastened to a giant one’. This small family of Hong Kong cannot be separated from the big family of motherland.” Vice-Premier Han Zheng, speaking at a themed meeting of the Leading Group on the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area Construction on April 22 in Guangzhou, also urged the HKSAR government to put the COVID-19 pandemic under control as soon as possible by whatever means necessary, so as to resume cross-border travel between Hong Kong and the mainland for the sake of quicker integration into the Bay Area development.
The author is a senior research fellow of China Everbright Holdings.
The views do not necessarily reflect those of China Daily.