The Diplomat.
When
the 10 member nations of ASEAN failed to reach agreement on the wording
of a joint communiqué for the first time in 45 years, most pundits
blamed this year’s ASEAN chair, Cambodia, for failing to forge a
consensus. Behind Phnom Penh’s passivity, however, was pressure from
Beijing to keep any mention of the South China Sea,
especially the recent faceoff between China and the Philippines in the
Scarborough Shoal, out of the final statement. That the Chinese had sway
over Cambodia should not come as a surprise. Beijing has provided
billions in aid to Cambodia. In 2011 alone the amount of foreign
investment pledged to Phnom Penh by China was 10 times greater than that
promised by the United States.
For more than a decade, China has pursued a strategy in Southeast
Asia that relied heavily on economic carrots to increase the stake of
the Southeast Asian countries in maintaining good relations with China.
The China-ASEAN FTA, Chinese foreign direct investment, foreign
assistance, and trade have all been used to encourage countries to
consider Beijing’s interests when formulating policies and eschew
actions that China would view as objectionable. In the past few years,
however, China has directly used economic relations to compel target
countries to alter their policies. And this growing trend is worrisome.
