20 years prove Beijing's role as good neighbor and friend

The two decades since China's accession to the Treaty of Amity and Cooperation in Southeast Asia, or TAC, prove that China has been and will always be a good neighbor, friend and partner of Southeast Asia, veteran Chinese diplomat Fu Ying said.

Amid challenges today, members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations have the capability to stick to principles, keep centrality, and not be manipulated by one major country against the interests of another, she said in an interview with China Daily.

This year marks the 20th anniversary of China's accession to the TAC, a foundational peace treaty for ASEAN established by its founding members in 1976, which embodies the principles of peaceful coexistence and friendly cooperation among Southeast Asian states and China.

China was the first among major countries to join the TAC and establish a strategic partnership with ASEAN. This was not only a milestone in China-ASEAN relations, but also an event of great significance for the whole region, said Fu Ying, a former Chinese ambassador to the United Kingdom who also once served as vice-minister of foreign affairs.

"China's accession to the Treaty cleared major political hurdles and trust deficits, providing an important impetus for the relationship to move into a golden period of 20 years," said Fu Ying.

In terms of connectivity, Fu Ying highlighted the China-Laos railway as a good example, and voiced great expectations in regard to construction of the Jakarta-Bandung high-speed railway and other Belt and Road Initiative projects in ASEAN covering a wide range of fields, including transport, commerce and clean energy.

"Those projects that have been carried out under the partnership between China and ASEAN have improved the well-being of more than 2 billion people," she said.

She said China and ASEAN have successfully followed a path of good-neighborliness and common development over the past 20 years, especially in the past decade following the idea of building a closer China-ASEAN community with a shared future.

Regarding the South China Sea disputes, Fu Ying pointed out that China's sovereignty and maritime rights and interests over the islands and reefs in the sea have long been established through history.

"China has long advocated and engaged in peaceful negotiations to resolve differences, primarily to maintain the general stability of the China-ASEAN relationship and to protect a peaceful and cooperative security environment in its neighborhood," Fu Ying said.

Support valued

As the world now finds itself in a new period of turbulence and transformation, there is a prevailing view in the United States that Washington was pulling some ASEAN states into attempts to counterbalance China.

"ASEAN countries promote their own reform and development and they highly value China's recognition and support," she added.

It is noted that the US has made China a target of strategic competition and is pursuing its so-called Indo-Pacific strategy, a move that actually pushes the region back into the abyss of Cold War confrontation.

"China and ASEAN are close neighbors. China will uphold the diplomatic policy featuring amity, sincerity, mutual benefit and inclusiveness," Fu Ying stressed.