Saturday, March 31, 2012

Foreign forces should not intervene in Asian affairs

People’s perception of China's international image is always guided by Western media. But to truly know the image of China, the world should not just listen to what Western media says, it needs to look at the true effects. What messages do we get from most Western media reports before Chinese President Hu Jintao started visit to Cambodia? There are two kinds of contents. First, Cambodia should not obey China on the issue of the South China Sea. Instead, it should maintain the prestige of the rotating presidency of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. Second, Cambodia has fallen into the trap of Chinese investment and become a dependency of China. All this is quite different with the true feelings of Cambodians. During a discussion meeting on the issue of the South China Sea, a Cambodian scholar said that China will not resort to the threat of force to small countries. China should be regarded as a cooperative partner that provides more opportunities for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. The issue of the South China Sea can certainly be solved through friendly consultations. Even the words of so-called "trap of Chinese investment" will disintegrate. The Cambodian people are the direct beneficiary of Chinese aid. Many Cambodians said that their country has just undergone chaos caused by war and urgently needs to rehabilitate. China put huge investment in Cambodia without any conditions. However, some other countries attached some conditions to their aid or have obvious political motives behind their aid. By contrast, China is the true friend of Cambodia.Why is the amicable settlement of the problem of the South China Sea feasible? Why is Chinese image in the Southeast Asia different from what the Western media describes? It is because that some Western people intentionally or unintentionally covered an important factor of knowing Chinese image - the peaceful development strategy of China. For a long period of time, Asian people lived under the influence of the Western countries. However, the situation has become very different today. Just as what Kishore Mahbubani from Singapore said, today is the best development opportunity for Asia in 200 years. China's peaceful development will obviously drive forward the whole Asian development. There are still many contradictions and differences among Asian countries and some issues rooted in history also need to be solved. Since Asian people can rapidly develop economy, they can also peacefully solve these problems by themselves. In fact, the cooperation between China and members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations is also aimed at solving the problems by themselves.

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