China will firmly encourage mutual investments and exchanges with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) as it takes the region as a high priority in its diplomacy, Chinese Ambassador to ASEAN Hou Yanqi said in Jakarta on Friday.
“We warmly welcome foreign enterprises including those from Malaysia, from Indonesia, from (other) ASEAN countries to keep investing in China and explore the Chinese market and share the country’s development opportunities,” Hou told participants in China-ASEAN Media & Think Tank Salon at the Chinese Mission to ASEAN.
The ambassador shared views of China’s development and China-ASEAN relations in 2025 from the perspective of the recently concluded two sessions of the National People’s Congress and the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference.
In her presentation, Hou picked up several key words from the Government Work Report. They included China’s high-quality development that signifies an important transformation of China’s economy after years of rapid growth; new quality productive forces that proposes that China should develop new quality productive forces in light of local conditions; people-centered development approach that more strongly focuses on improving people’s living standards; and high-standard opening-up.
On China’s opening-up, she said China is determined to continue stabilizing foreign trade and vigorously encourage foreign investment.
The report specifically mentioned the signing of China-ASEAN Free Trade Area 3.0 Upgrade Protocol, which among others aims to minimize barriers and deepen economic linkages between parties, lower costs, and increase intra-regional trade and investment.
China has since 2009 been ASEAN’s largest trading partner. Among all ASEAN member states, Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand are at the top as trade partners with China.
Currently, ASEAN countries collectively rank seventh of the top 20 destinations for China’s foreign direct investment, the ambassador said.
China is committed to supporting its cooperation with ASEAN that has enabled their partnership to remain a successful model for regional economic integration. “I believe all of these will help us to defend the trade and tariff war and the uncertainty and sluggish economy in the world and also in the region,” Hou said.
“China and ASEAN countries are peace loving countries … We cherish very much about the Asian value,” Hou said and stressed her belief that non-interference into other countries’ internal affairs is, first of all, the key point of the Asian values.
While admitting that there are territorial disputes between certain ASEAN countries and China, Hou said it is because “we are neighbors”.
“If a country has no neighbors, definitely they will have no these kind of troubles,” she said.
M. Habib Abiyan Dzakwan, a researcher at the Department of International Relations, CSIS Indonesia, said he applauds China’s commitment, as stated in the Government Work Report, to advancing economic liberalization with its plans of continuing to lower tariff barriers for the least developed countries, aspiring to upgrade the China-ASEAN Free Trade Agreement, and the acceding to a high quality FTA – the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership.
The commitment to economic liberalization was aired in the time of skyrocketing protectionist measures, Habib told the correspondent after the dialogue.
Elke Alexandrina, head of the Centre of ASEAN Public Relations Studies at Jakarta’s London School of Public Relations, appreciates the multi-aspect cooperation between China and ASEAN countries.
She said that new efforts are needed for opening wider the understanding of ASEAN people of China and the other way around.
“There needs to be mutual learning and dialogue,” she said while emphasizing the importance of many more lecturers and students from ASEAN studying and attending meetings in China and vice versa.
The writer is a freelance journalist for China Daily.