Xinhua News Agency, Beijing, January 13th. Special feature: Across the wind and waves to move forward together – Outlook for the Asia-Pacific situation in 2022 (detailed version)
Xinhua News Agency reporter Liu Zan
At the beginning of the new year, the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) came into effect, marking a new milestone in Asia-Pacific openness and cooperation. This year, China will host the BRICS Summit, the APEC Economic Leaders’ Informal Meeting, the G20 Summit and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization Summit will also be held in Asian countries, and global governance will usher in “Asian time”. This year is also the 50th anniversary of the normalization of diplomatic relations between China and Japan and the 30th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and South Korea.
At the same time, the Asia-Pacific region is also facing many challenges: the mutated new coronavirus Omicron strain continues to spread, the United States plays up “great power competition” and engages in “small circle” diplomacy, multinational elections affect the trend of regional hotspot issues, and Afghanistan is in deep humanitarian crisis… …
Facing the theme of the times of peace and development, 2022 will be a crucial year for the Asia-Pacific to overcome the storm and move forward together.
Four variables attract attention
At the end of the year and the beginning of the year, the aggressive Omicron strain caused a sharp rebound in the epidemic situation in many Asia-Pacific countries, and the economic recovery and supply chain recovery momentum were in danger of being interrupted. How to maintain a balance between epidemic prevention and control and economic recovery will remain a severe test for countries in the Asia-Pacific region in 2022.
Afghanistan, after the Taliban took power, is facing a severe humanitarian crisis. The unilateral US sanctions and the freezing of funds have made the war-torn Afghanistan’s economy even worse. If the humanitarian crisis is not eased, Afghanistan may fall into turmoil and chaos, giving extremist terrorist organizations an opportunity to endanger regional security and stability.
South Korea’s planned presidential election in March adds to the complex and sensitive situation on the Korean peninsula. The ruling party’s Democratic Party presidential candidate Lee Jae-myung advocates that the conditional relaxation of sanctions against the DPRK should be carried out at the same time as the DPRK’s phased denuclearization, while the opposition party’s National Power Party’s presidential candidate Yin Xiyue advocates “denuclearization first, security guarantees later” and measures against the DPRK. Maximum pressure policy. The outcome of this election will affect the direction of the North Korean nuclear issue and even the situation in Northeast Asia.
In Southeast Asia, the Philippines is scheduled to hold national and local elections in May. The current President Duterte has pursued pragmatic diplomacy in the past few years and resolved the South China Sea issue through negotiation. Whether the new president will continue the pragmatic policy after taking office is related to the stability of the situation in the South China Sea.
U.S. spoilers destabilize
After the Biden administration of the United States came to power, it implemented the “Indo-Pacific strategy” and hyped up the so-called “great power competition”. Various actions have fully exposed the true face of the United States as a disruptor of regional peace and stability and a disruptor of unity and cooperation.
The United States has closed and exclusive “small circles” in the Asia-Pacific, whether it is strengthening the “four-nation mechanism” of the United States, Japan, India and Australia, or forming a trilateral security partnership “Australia, Britain and the United States“, all of which are full of Cold War confrontation. Senior U.S. officials have also visited Southeast Asia many times in an attempt to win over countries in the region to choose sides, but few responded.
Militarily, the United States dispatched ships and aircraft to carry out so-called “freedom of navigation” operations, held military exercises with its allies in the South China Sea and surrounding waters, and frequently “showed its muscles” and stirred up troubles in the Asia-Pacific. The nuclear submarine cooperation promoted by the United States, Britain and Australia in defiance of international rules puts the region at risk of an arms race and nuclear proliferation.
Countries look forward to development cooperation
Despite various challenges, solidarity, cooperation and common development are still the consensus of all countries in the Asia-Pacific region.
In the face of the United States‘ attempt to form factions and create divisions and confrontations in the region, many countries have publicly expressed their strong will to maintain independent and balanced diplomacy and maintain regional peace and stability. Malaysian Deputy Foreign Minister Kamaruddin Jafar said that Malaysia upholds a neutral position and will not take sides between China and the United States.Vietnamese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Le Thi Thuy