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CHINA TONES DOWN ITS HARSH APROACH TOWARDS SMALLER NATIONS

YB WEB DESK. Dated: 11/24/2021 1:11:13 PM

T K NANDANAN Chinese President Xi Jinping always looks grim and serious with a dour disposition. He rarely sports a smile on his face as many dictators in the pasthad the same disposition.But Xi Jinping is a man of stickler and he definitely talks the talk and walks the walk because he believes in actions rather than words. Nonetheless, assuming a flawless public façade, Xi said on Monday that China will not seek hegemony or bully smaller nations as he announced 1.5 billion dollar development assistance for the Asian Nations (Asean) besides the elevation of the ties to a comprehensive strategic partnership to strengthen security cooperation with the 10-nation bloc amid the US push into the resource rich Indo-Pacific. Mr. Xi, 68, holds China’s all three power centres-General Secretary of the CPC, Chairman of the powerful Central Military Commission (CMC), which is the overall high command of the military and the Presidency is set to complete his second five-year tenure next year. He has emerged as the most powerful leader after party founder Mao Zedong.Forcing a smile on his pensive face, Xi addressed the summit meet of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) via video link.The Association of Southeast Asian Nations is a regional grouping that promotes economic, political, and security among its ten members: Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, Myanmar, the Philippines, Cambodia, Singapore, Malaysia, Laos and Brunei are the members of the group. Xi said, “China resolutely opposes hegemonism and power politics, wishes to maintain friendly relations with its neighbours and jointly nurture lasting peace in the region and absolutely will not seek hegemony or even less bully the small.” He was very philosophical with his statement- ‘As distance tests a horse’s strength, time reveals a person’s heart.’ With China reaching the zenith of economic prosperity and becoming the world economic power pushing the US to the second position in the world order, Xi has started beaming now and it is as though he has fulfilled a great dream. Yes, in every sense, he can be complacent as China has been toiling hard behind the curtain to take one billion plus population to the prosperity level. Now China,having elevated to the world leader position, does not want to bully smaller nations because Asean nations, undoubtedly, contributed to the China’s economic prosperity. It may be recalled that China was the first to establish a special relationship with the Asean countries and reaped big benefits as the trade with the bloc touched over 732-billion-dollar last year with Beijing emerging as its largest trading partner. It is pertinent to note that India too held its India-Asean summit last month in which Prime Minister Narendra Modi said 2022 would be celebrated as the ‘Asean-India Friendship Year’ to mark 30 years of their partnership.