How can China, ASEAN build a closer community with a shared future?

The highly-anticipated Jakarta-Bandung High-speed Railway – the first of its kind abroad based on Chinese technology and standards – is set to bring convenient travel and many opportunities to Indonesians.

Hailing the railway as a flagship project in cooperation between China and Indonesia, Lu Kang, Chinese ambassador to Indonesia, said the railway will cut the commuting time from Jakarta to Bandung from some three and a half hours to some 40 minutes, adding that the railway will also create more than 30,000 jobs directly related to the project.

The railway is just one example of the fruits reaped through the cooperation between China and countries belonging to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).

Since China and the 10-member ASEAN bloc – which is made up of Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam – forged dialogue relations in 1991, the two sides have remained committed to strengthening political mutual trust to safeguard regional stability and promoting regional prosperity with comprehensive cooperation.

China joined the Treaty of Amity and Cooperation in Southeast Asia in 2003, marking a new phase of relations between China and ASEAN. Also in 2003, China and ASEAN decided to establish their strategic partnership, which was elevated to a comprehensive strategic partnership in 2021. At the China-ASEAN (10+1) Foreign Ministers’ Meeting in July, China and ASEAN vowed to advance their comprehensive strategic partnership.

This Tuesday, Chinese Premier Li Qiang will go to Jakarta for the 26th China-ASEAN Summit, the 26th ASEAN Plus Three Summit and the 18th East Asia Summit.

Noting the current international and regional situation is complex and uncertain, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said China expects the summits to promote unity, deepen cooperation, focus on development and inject more stability and positive energy into the international and regional situation. 

Over the past few years, China and ASEAN have expanded mutually beneficial cooperation on all fronts, such as flourishing bilateral trade and investment, as both sides have been strengthening political mutual trust.

Data from China’s Ministry of Commerce showed that the trade volume between China and ASEAN reached $975.3 billion in 2022, up 11.2 percent year on year and surging by 120 percent from the level of 2013.

As of the end of July, the cumulative two-way investment exceeded $380 billion, and China had set up more than 6,500 enterprises with direct investment in ASEAN.

The past decade also saw ASEAN becoming China’s top trading partner in 2020, surpassing the European Union and the United States.

As well as booming trade, China and ASEAN have enhanced cooperation on infrastructure and regional cooperation.

For example, the China-Laos railway had made a total of 20.09 million passenger trips as of April 16, and the section of the railway within China handled 17.09 million passenger trips, and that outside China, three million passenger trips, since it went into operation in December 2021, according to data from China Railway.

Furthermore, the two sides are actively pushing forward the negotiation of version-3.0 China-ASEAN Free Trade Zone (FTA) to promote a higher-level opening-up. In June, hundreds of officials from China and ASEAN countries gathered in southwest China’s Kunming City to attend the third round of negotiations on Version-3.0 China-ASEAN FTA, aiming to enhance China-ASEAN cooperation in the digital and green economy as well as the supply and industrial chains.

“Looking ahead, I think ASEAN-China bilateral trade will increase three fold in the next 20 years and the investment will increase accordingly,” said Djauhari Oratmangun, Indonesian ambassador to China.

The Version-3.0 China-ASEAN FTA will bring tangible benefits to local residents, said Shi Zhongjun, secretary-general of the ASEAN-China Center, adding the unilateralist, protectionist policies pursued by some countries outside the region have had certain impact on cooperation in the Asia-Pacific region, including that between China and ASEAN.

For the sake of peace and stability in the Asia-Pacific region, all parties should join hands to overcome this disturbance and cultivate ASEAN-China cooperation into an evergreen tree, Shi noted.

At a time with weak global demand, inflation and international geopolitical conflict, Li Fei, vice minister of commerce, said China will expand mutually beneficial cooperation with ASEAN in all aspects, jointly upgrade economic and trade cooperation, and promote the building of a closer China-ASEAN community of shared future.