China Buys ASEAN
China & ASEAN
Economic diplomacy can be blatant. China Daily carried a report this weekend about a huge aid package that Beijing is offering the ASEAN countries, collectively or individually. Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi announced the package Sunday:
- Launch of a $10 billion China-ASEAN investment cooperation fund to focus on infrastructure, energy, resources, communications and information technology.
- $15 billion in credit lines to ASEAN countries over the next 3-to-5 years.
- $39.7 million to Myanmar, Cambodia and Laos to meet “urgent needs“.
- $5 million to the China-ASEAN Cooperation Fund.
- $900,000 to another China-ASEAN fund that (confusingly) includes Japan, South Korea and China.
- 300,000 tons of rice to the Emergency East Asia Rice Reserve. And …
- An additional 2,200 scholarships in government and public administration over five years.
I don’t know how much of this package is really new, since politicians tend to wrap old presents in new gift wrap many times. And such gifts don’t often come without strings. Even China Daily mentioned that the package will result in “profound and active influence” on China-ASEAN cooperation. I’ll bet.
It will be interesting to discover what projects eventually emerge from this aid package and how procurements for those projects are managed. I expect the lion’s share of the contracts will go to Chinese construction companies, but perhaps I am overly cynical. There may a few dribbles for the rest of us.
