Positive momentum in ASEAN-China relationship must be carried through

By: Azhar Azam

On May 25, a virtual meeting between Antony Blinken and foreign ministers of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) was called off over a technical snafu, seen as a political slight by some members, after the U.S. secretary of state reportedly kept the top diplomats of the 10-member regional bloc waiting for 45 minutes as he was heading to the Middle East.

The U.S. State Department's refusal to respond to media questions regarding the cancellation of the planned interaction, and the fact that Washington hasn't any serving envoys in half of the ASEAN countries, additionally laid bare America's pseudo commitment to the association and refreshed memories of some U.S. administrations that shelved their official visits to the regional nations or snubbed the ASEAN summits consecutively.

Following Blinken's diplomatic gaffe, U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman, during her recent trip, eulogized ASEAN centrality in the region to woo support for a provocative set of actions, including self-described rules-based international order, a free and open Indo-Pacific and human rights and democracy model, without giving a timeframe for vaccine delivery.

But the U.S.' dedication to the region was again met with incredulity as there's a growing suspicion in ASEAN that Washington was only paying lip service and the bloc had actually been dropped way down on the priority list of the Biden administration's foreign policy.

For ASEAN – grappling with fast-paced caseloads, partly fueled by new coronavirus variants in Asia, alongside vaccine shortage posing risks to health and economy – Blinken's episode was shocking, particularly when the White House had sent a delegation of senators to China's Taiwan in a military aircraft to announce a donation of 750,000 vaccines.

The differential treatment exposes Washington's claims it doesn't distribute vaccines for political favors or the U.S. donation, as U.S. President Joe Biden says, would come "with no strings attached," and accentuates Washington is seeking to exploit vaccines to influence states' policies, an allegation American officials routinely attributed to China.

Against the backdrop of the U.S.' aloof attitude toward ASEAN and detrimental activities in the Asia Pacific, ASEAN foreign ministers on June 7 met Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Chongqing and gained assurance from Beijing that it would do its best to provide vaccines and proposals to deepen cooperation on vaccine development and production, as well as peacefully handle issues of mutual concern including advancing consultations on the Code of Conduct in the South China Sea.

China has already delivered 100 million vaccine doses to Southeast Asian nations. The commitment to render more assistance soothed ASEAN, which greatly appreciated China's provision of vaccines. As the lag time between infection and vaccination is a central interest of the regional grouping, Chinese support would help them to quickly shield their people from the virus and open up economies.

Indonesia, the largest ASEAN economy facing a spike in cases, is inoculating its population with Chinese vaccines. Out of the 92 million doses received by the start of last week, 80 million were the China-made Sinovac, found 98 percent and 96 percent effective at preventing death and hospitalization by the country's health ministry and will be co-produced at a China-assisted facility there.

As a result of its efficacy, Chinese vaccines are now a key part of the vaccine rollout in major Southeast Asian countries including Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines. Earlier this month, Singapore and Vietnam joined their ASEAN partners and approved China's Sinovac and Sinopharm.

The U.S. State Department boasted that out of roughly 2.3 billion vaccines the G7+ had pledged to finance and provide since 2020, America was providing nearly half of the support. It further promised to donate 500 million doses, starting delivery in August, of Pfizer BioNTech vaccine to 92 low- and middle-income countries across the world.

The commitment falls far short of the 11 billion doses the World Health Organization has said are needed to vaccinate at least 70 percent of the world's population. The White House's statement that "donation will serve as the foundation for a coordinated effort by the world's democracies" and Biden's remarks that "democracies of the world are posed to deliver as well" – blacken Washington's global campaign against COVID-19 and unveil its ulterior motive to use vaccines as tools to advance the U.S.' geopolitical and geostrategic ambitions.

Just days before the G7 summit, the Biden administration, only after administering jabs to its own population, set out a plan to rapidly deliver 25 million surplus doses to the world. The to-be-delivered "drop in the bucket" shots included only 7 million to 15 countries in South and Southeast Asia, compared to China, which has already donated almost 22 million doses worldwide including about 14 million to the Asia Pacific. In Southeast Asia, the Philippines and Thailand combined had received more than 11 million doses of Chinese vaccine as of May.

Biden's promotion of the democratic vaccine would raise the eyebrows of Asian leaders regarding the U.S.' political regional goals. The coronavirus is a global challenge and urges all vaccine-producing countries to put off bilateral rows and forge a united international approach through multilateral engagement rather than cheap point-scoring.

ASEAN members cannot forget the U.S.' continued desertion and reluctance to supply vaccines as infection rates keep rising in the region, which is delaying the economic recovery of nearly all of the Southeast Asian nations. Before the ASEAN Defense Ministers-Plus meeting, China and coalition defense ministers agreed to safeguard regional peace. As China has committed itself to stability in the South China Sea, and considering Beijing's vaccine support and economic importance for the bloc and the region, the positive momentum in the ASEAN-China relationship must be preserved and carried through in every bilateral and multilateral meeting and no extraterritorial country should be allowed to destabilize the regional peace and affinity.

*This is one of my opinion pieces that first appeared at "China Global Television Network (CGTN)": 

https://news.cgtn.com/news/2021-06-16/Positive-momentum-in-ASEAN-China-relationship-must-be-carried-through--119cjulGR4Q/index.html

Biden's 'either we or them' push at G7 impractical, unrealistic and unsustainable

By: Azhar Azam

With an avid interest to renew America's transatlantic alliance, U.S. President Joe Biden will attend the 47th Group of Seven (G7) and NATO summits in Cornwall and Brussels within the next few days. Threatened by China's rise and global kudos for Chinese vaccine cooperation and conceptualization of universal prosperity, he wants a stable and predictable relationship with Russia to keep his obsessive focus on Beijing.

Before leaving for Europe, Biden described that his goals were geared toward "strengthening the alliance, making it clear to Putin and to China that Europe and the United States are tight." Once holding talks with the UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson, the U.S. President will also try to restore America's relationship with European countries and dispel Europe's concerns about lack of trust in the U.S.

Yet given European states do not back the idea to forge the so-called "democratic" bloc against China under declining U.S. global competitiveness and eminence, Biden should better restrain himself from using the forum for setting Beijing and Brussels, endeavoring to move forward and deepen their bilateral trade and economic ties, at odds.

The Biden administration is steadily backing away from its promise to maintain a fine balance between competition and cooperation with China. The European Union (EU) however realizes the importance of China-EU collaboration as the European Council President Charles Michel hailed the landmark investment deal a "huge step in the right direction."

Ahead of his meeting with Biden at G7 summit, Michel's resolute support to the treaty, objective stance signaling to put away differences and buttress trade and economic ties with China – despite seeing Beijing as a competitor but also important partner of cooperation – shows way to Washington how a balance could be crafted between two sides through continuous engagement rather than sheer confrontation.

Even though the U.S. President is desperate to watch Brussels act as Washington's proxy, many officials in the White House show skepticism that Europe will ever concede its business interests or contribute to security in other regions, let alone managing to gather support for the U.S. unprovoked "long-term strategic competition with China."

So, as the research director of the European Council on Foreign Relations Jeremy Shapiro summed up, Europe for the U.S. is largely a grandiloquent place where American officials deliver speeches and practice hot diplomacy in scenic locations "to show up and to intone the ritual incantations of transatlantic solidarity" and hard press the European leaders support the U.S. efforts to contain China.

Biden, some argue, will have to make Europe more resilient for a return of Trumpism and help it become more autonomous and capable before enabling the U.S. to better compete against China. The wariness within the bloc to join an anti-China alliance is another major barrier in the achievement of Washington's manic ambitions.

G7 is an informal club of wealthy and developed countries; still India was invited, leaving out the largest growing developing country and key to global economic growth, China. The division of the world on the basis of political systems exposes inequitable treatment with specific countries, doubts Biden's quest for the survival of multilateralism and most importantly, risks revival of international growth and stops other developing nations from playing their role in multilateral governance.

The EU, like China, is a victim of the U.S. tariff war over alleged national security concerns. Biden is yet to lift tariffs on European steel and aluminum, possibly as a leverage to push the bloc to meet his undue demands.

But prior to that, the U.S. President is treating the EU even harder than Trump. Biden is sustaining the "Buy American" policy, continues the blockade of the judicial system in the World Trade Organization and has made Brussels look like the bad guys by unilaterally backing the proposal to give up vaccine intellectual property rights.

The sudden shift in the U.S. behavior on vaccine cooperation is aimed at countering China, which expansively helped developing countries in inoculating their population and further pledged $3 billion over the next three years for COVID-19 response and social and economic recovery. Biden seeks to align Europe, especially Germany, to join the U.S. new Cold War against China. In order to take the industrial giant on board, he reportedly decided to waive and defended waiving sanctions on the company overseeing the Nord Stream 2 pipeline. But the Europeans including the important Chinese trade partner do not like the U.S. often-used term "adversary." Instead of becoming part of any America's China doctrine, they would put their interests before "America First."

Washington has to mend its arrogant approach that the U.S. partners can't be China's allies. The European nations have the right to draw an independent policy and maintain their relationship both with China and the U.S. Biden's push – "either we or them" – is impractical, unrealistic and unsustainable. Confrontation favors nobody and that should be Europe's message to Biden at G7.

*This is one of my opinion pieces that first appeared at "China Global Television Network (CGTN)": 

https://news.cgtn.com/news/2021-06-12/Biden-s-push-at-G7-impractical-unrealistic-and-unsustainable-110jJG4ooHS/index.html

Biden’s charm offensive to placate Israel

By: Azhar Azam

Since 2007 when Hamas seized power in the territory after winning 2006 elections, Gaza has been subject to Israel’s air, land and sea blockade. With an entire grown-up generation confined to the fenced-in territory and 50% unemployment, limited electricity, sewerage and clean water and climbing food insecurity continue to weigh upon the Gazans – there are less than stellar chances for peace to prevail and specter of another war remains to the fore.

A yawning military and economic gap between Israel and Palestine – where former controls the best-equipped army in the Middle East along with amassing several hundred nuclear bombs and has 14 times more per capita nominal GDP compared to the latter – gives Israel a sweeping authority to ethnically cleanse Palestinians from its southern areas and then mow them down in the world’s largest “open-air prison.”

While the US fidelity to hold fast a lopsided pro-Israel policy reflects the “truth-bending grip of authoritarianism” on both countries – the UK political interference to obstruct the International Criminal Court’s investigation into Israel’s war crimes in Palestine can be linked with an entrenched Israeli influence in Britain politics.

In Ontario, the law conflates criticism of Israel with anti-Semitism. Across Canada, Muslims and other people supportive of Palestinians are systematically targeted, scholars are denied jobs for speaking on the Palestinian plight and journalists are chastised over questioning lack of Palestinian voices in the media as white nationalism and white supremacism plagues the country.

All the three countries champion international human rights of ethnic and religious minorities throughout the world. Back home, the world’s leading democracies resist condemning even the Israeli clearest violation of international law and human rights, give it “carte blanche” and punish protesters for protesting against injustice to the Palestinians.

On Israel, the US President Joe Biden – who didn’t even reprimand American ally over planned forced evictions of Palestinians from East Jerusalem and whose officials blasted Trump-era human rights – extended “unwavering support” and still backs Israeli policies of apartheid and persecution, which disproportionately killed 256 Palestinians including 66 children in comparison to 13 killings in Israel including two children.

Biden insisted a two-state solution is “the only answer” to the Israel-Palestine conflict. Yet his contrasting statements, defending Israel’s legitimate right to defend itself while calling for de-escalation, refute his commitment for peace in the Mideast. The mixed stance obfuscates his pledge to put human rights at the center of his foreign policy, demonstrates he’s following his predecessor’s unabashed pro-Israel policy and exposes strong inclination toward Israel.

After the Democrat sought implementation of a “significant de-escalation today on the path of to a ceasefire” – Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu, having rebuffed the most assertive US tone saying he’s “determined to continue this operation until its goal is achieved,” further embarrassed the US president by conducting fresh airstrikes on the Gaza Strip the next day.

It wasn’t the first time Biden got insulted from Israel. Eleven years back as the US Vice President, he was treated in the similar fashion during his trip to Israel when the Israeli authorities pronounced an “incredibly frustrating” move of ratifying a large expanse of a settlement in East Jerusalem, called Ramat Shlomo.

On paper, Biden has been vocal on international human rights practices. But practically, his adviser’s cautious inquiry from Israel to provide justification for leveling the al-Jalaa tower and refusal to comment further on the horrific incident additionally reveals a bigoted administration’s approach to resolve the decades-old conflict.

Israel bombed a high-rise building in Gaza housing offices of The Associated Press, Al Jazeera and other media outlets, contending Hamas militants were hiding their military assets there. With no proof to back the allegation, Israeli attacks – despite rolling back Israel’s army chief comments that AP journalists drank coffee morning alongside Hamas electronics experts – pose serious threats to international peace since it can stoke other countries to launch and defend offensives on civilians and public structures.

Caught right in the middle of his advocacy for human rights and the US interests with its closest strategic partner – Biden is criticized for sustaining Trump’s policies and walking back on his promises from America’s relations with the Gulf nations and refugees. In Congress, the American funding to Israel has sparked debate to make sure that the US security assistance is not used for Israel’s maltreatment of Palestinian children, forced displacement and illegal annexation as the provision of billions of dollars is getting more harder to justify.

Under the Obama administration, Washington in 2016 announced a whooping military aid of $38 billion for Israel between 2018 and 2028. Even the Covid-19 in the country couldn’t chop off the bipartisan priority and Israel, despite concerns over its abysmal record on human rights, received security assistance of $3.8 billion from Trump in 2020.

The international community and left-wingers in the Democratic Party sought Biden to speak loudly on behalf of Palestinians. He rather chose to compromise his credibility and neutrality earlier by holding complicit silence and then through a guarded response on Palestinian dehumanization while sharply condemning rockets attacks on Israel.

No matter conversation in the US is changing or how quickly Israel loses a perception battle; what matters is that the US policy on Israel isn’t changing. Through recurrently blocking motions against Israeli aggression at the United Nations Security Council, throwing weight behind Israel in the recent war and allaying Israeli fears about curtailing his support – Biden has launched a charm offensive to placate Israel. Yet the US president’s bizarre strategy has exposed his global human rights campaign.

*This is one of my opinion pieces (unedited) that first appeared in "The Express Tribune":

https://tribune.com.pk/story/2305062/bidens-charm-offensive-to-placate-israel

CAI prominence for the European Union

By: Azhar Azam

Through the China-European Union (EU) Comprehensive Agreement on Investment (CAI) in December, European investors gained unprecedented access to one of the world's biggest and fastest-growing markets, China. At the conclusion of negotiations, the bloc said that for the first time Beijing had agreed to ambitious provisions with a trade partner.

Yet, in a disappointing move, the EU parliament voted to freeze the ratification of the milestone and symbiotic investment deal on May 20 until Beijing lifts sanctions, imposed as a rational reaction to Europe's restrictions on Chinese individuals, from European individuals and entities.

With Brussels believing that improved business ties with Beijing will boost the EU economic growth as the Union has invested heavily in China's automotive, basic materials, and other sectors – Chinese commitment to a rules-based relationship was seen as a positive signal for the world economy, facing varied complex challenges from raging pandemic to surging protectionism, by European experts.

The deferral in the approval dealt a blow to tiring negotiations of 35 rounds in seven years and adversely affected Chinese and European companies, expected to benefit from wider investment access and better protection in each other's markets. It additionally put the bloc's push to create jobs in the EU where unemployment rose by more than two million to 15.52 million in March 2021 as compared to March 2020.

Still, some positive comments and factors – as the EU seeks to avert escalation and wants to continue engagement with China, has ruled out the perception of the stalled investment deal, treats Beijing as a "negotiating partner for cooperation," and is fostering cooperation on other areas such as climate change – buoy up hopes that China and the EU can prevent their relationship from a downward spiral.

Brussels' key priorities have been speedy recovery from the pandemic, rebuilding the economy, and becoming an influential global player and world leader in climate change. While interests of China and the EU converge on all these issues and the latter recognizes it needs to do a lot to develop it into an effective geopolitical actor, Brussels should look to steel business and trade ties and keep all communication lines open with Beijing.

Very well aware of their deeply entwined economies, Beijing and Brussels have magnified their bilateral trade by 42 percent besides pouring 12.4 percent and 70.8 percent more investments in reciprocal markets respectively during the first four months of 2021. This clearly indicates that both sides were realizing the importance of upgrading the cooperation and strengthening their relationship.

Europe's goal number one is to achieve "strategic autonomy," lessen increasing reliance and dependence on external forces, mainly the United States. The policy concept – which has now widened from consolidation of European defense and security to an economic and technology independence and production in processors, manufacturing vital medicines and other essential products – needs China, which is establishing itself as a pioneer in technological advancement and digitalization, to uplift region's shrinking economic competitiveness and avoid global insignificance.

Unlike the UK departure from the EU, the U.S. "America First" policy or the COVID-19 test that threatens Europe's pursuit of the "new common project" – China's economic rise and strong industrial demand offer an opportunity for the Union. Chinese academics, think tanks, and leadership have voiced support for Europe's ambition and continue showing a willingness to expand cooperation in all areas including climate change, global governance, and multilateralism.

Last year, Europe's economy contracted by 6.3 percent, the worst in the bloc's history with infection killing hundreds of thousands in a region of 450 million and taking an economic toll on millions of others. As Brussels fast-tracks the vaccination drive and inoculates European people, it isn't wise to disrupt the looming economic rebound by holding progress on the CAI.

China is the EU's largest trading partner and Brussels is Beijing's second-biggest. According to the International Monetary Fund's April 2021 World Economic Outlook, China and the EU-19 accounted for more than 30 percent of the global economy in 2020. It is important for Brussels to boost momentum for the projected financial upturn by reinforcing economic and trade relations with Beijing and making full use of the opportunity unleashed to the political coalition in the form of the investment deal.

Notwithstanding European parliamentary forebodings, the European Commission thinks the deal is right and felicitous for the bloc. France and Germany, key backers of the pact, too are unlikely to change their support on their economic utility with Beijing even if the government changes after the upcoming elections in the two European economic heavyweights.

Federica Mogherini, former foreign policy chief of the EU, says that Europe understands dialogue and cooperation in a respectful manner are better than confrontation. She observes "the European Union is genetically programmed to support multilateralism." It's the same practice being strongly advocated and pursued by China to tackle global challenges through consultations in multilateral institutions such as the United Nations.

Both China and the EU are great economic powers and strategic partners, which in many ways are interdependent and have several shared interests. Neither has the leverage nor should they force the other side to change its domestic policies. The CAI is a favor to none, but to the economies and people of these two valuable markets so progress must be made on the deal that would help Europe pull off its pre-pandemic economic growth and "strategic autonomy."

*This is one of my opinion pieces that first appeared at "China Global Television Network (CGTN)": 

https://news.cgtn.com/news/2021-06-01/CAI-prominence-for-the-European-Union-10JvpcOPAf6/index.html