China to show off new diplomatic clout at APEC

HANOI: China is set to exude all the confidence of a rising great power at this week’s Asia-Pacific summit in Vietnam, wielding its clout on issues like North Korea’s nuclear programme and the price of oil. Of the leaders attending the 21-member Asia Pacific Economic Co-operation (APEC) forum in Hanoi, Chinese president Hu Jintao could well be the busiest, reflecting Beijing’s growing activism on the global scene.

His schedule includes keenly-awaited meetings with US president George W Bush and Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe, for whom this will be his first major diplomatic gathering. “Even if China is not a driving force inside APEC, it’s very important for us,” said Pi Ping, a foreign policy expert at People’s University in Beijing. “Over the past decade, China has emphasised multilateral diplomacy, and APEC is a very important multilateral forum,” she said.

Groomed in a political culture where personal connections are everything, Hu probably understands as well as anyone the need for regular direct encounters with other world leaders. North Korea, which agreed to return to six-nation disarmament talks weeks after its first nuclear weapons test, is set to figure large for China, which is Pyongyang’s closest ally. “Hu is likely to discuss the time of the new round of talks and the attitude countries should take in dealing with North Korea,” said Shi Yinhong, an international relations scholar from the People’s University. China will also seek to address issues such as high oil prices threatening the region’s economic health, observers say, as well as those impacting on its physical wellbeing such as infectious diseases such as bird flu.

It is a change that could not be more striking from the start of China’s economic reform three decades ago, when it was as closed to the outside world as North Korea is today. With the world’s fourth largest economy, and foreign exchange reserves that are second to none, China now wields global clout on a scale like never before. Hu personifies this more outward-looking China. He appears at APEC shortly after hosting a Beijing summit with 48 African nations, and shortly before a trip to India and Pakistan. China’s active participation at APEC is also significant as it signals a fundamental shift in China’s approach to diplomacy.

“APEC offers a great platform for the exchange of views, also outside the field of economics,” said Meng Xia, an analyst at the APEC Research Centre at Nankai University in Tianjin. “Even now, as China has entered the World Trade Organisation and prepares various bilateral and multilateral trade agreements, APEC still performs a special function as a forum where leaders can meet face to face,” she said. Till the mid-1990s, China’s preferred diplomatic approach was to deal with other countries bilaterally to ensure it would have the upper hand in almost any situation.

APEC is only one example of that shift, alongside China’s engagement with the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations and its participation in the six-party North Korea talks. The change is motivated by China’s wish to convince its neighbors it will not become a regional bully and avoid tensions that could upset its economic reform program. “China will reiterate its intention of developing peacefully to reassure its neighbors,” said Shi, of the People’s University. AFP