In his first major outing with his Asian colleagues, Prime Minister Wen Jiabao (
That Wen's presence drove much of what was accomplished at this year's ASEAN summit meeting, is without doubt. What was striking was the style and manner in which he brought it about.
Again and again, Wen sought to reassure his colleagues that China's fast growth and expanding trade meant only the best for the region. He signed a menu of agreements, proposed a variety of people-to-people exchanges and offered a special expo in China next year for Southeast Asian businesses.
From China's point of view the display of affability was intended not only for the regional audience but for the wider listening gallery, particularly the one in Washington.
"He wants to show the West: `See we're trusted in our own neighborhood,'" an Asian diplomat said at a signing ceremony on Wednesday, which featured China and the 10 ASEAN countries.
Chinese President Hu Jintao (
The Chinese prime minister exercised what was commonly referred to here in Bali as his "charm offensive." He had the field to himself.
Though the US has been the dominant power in the region since World War II, it is not a member of the ASEAN regional group and unlike Japan, South Korea, India and China, is not a participant in the discussions.
There were only a handful of American business people at a business summit that accompanied the meeting of the leaders, and there were no American diplomats observing the proceedings.
After Japan, the US remains the biggest investor in Southeast Asia but in the past several years American investment has declined. Further, Washington is perceived as being consumed by its agenda revolving around the campaign against terror and problems in the Middle East.
"I have never seen a time when Southeast Asia is in so much transition and open to ideas, and never seen a time when the US is so distracted from the region," said Ernest Bower, the president of the US-ASEAN business council that represents big American corporations in the region.
In contrast, he said, "China is focused on the region like a laser beam."
Wen's "charm offensive" in Bali is part of what some Asian diplomats are calling China's decision to take a "strategic pause" abroad while it focuses on rapid domestic growth and modernization.
To achieve that growth with the minimum of disruption, the Chinese leadership is intent, these diplomats say, on securing smooth relations with the rest of the world, including its own back yard.
Last year China dropped its militant stand on a dispute over islands in the South China Sea. Instead, it was opting, "for the time being," said the Chinese ambassador to Indonesia, Lu Shumin, for a "cooperative" solution.
Many nations in the region are rich in the natural resources that China needs to fuel its economic growth.
It is no accident that the Chinese leader, Hu, is addressing the Australian parliament in Canberra on Oct. 24, the day after Bush, who will end his upcoming Asian trip in the Australian capital. Australia recently won a sizable contract to sell liquid natural gas to China and Australia sells China large quantities of iron ore and alumina.
Similarly, China is forging close diplomatic and political links with Indonesia which has deep reserves of oil as well as liquid natural gas. Until a few years ago, China and its government was considered an almost hostile power in Indonesia, and China was upset by what it considered the Indonesian government's discriminatory policies toward the ethnic Chinese population.
But now Lu is accorded first-rank status by the Indonesians. As a mark of China's burgeoning economic and political influence in Indonesia, Lu was Citibank's guest of honor this year at a retreat in Indonesia of some of the company's senior executives.
For some, Wen's performance in Bali was just one more illustration of China's regional comeback. Centuries ago, Chinese settled along the northern coast of Java, now the main island of Indonesia, as part of China's great epoch of Asian trade.
No one expects the Chinese comeback in quite those terms.
But Bower said: "I do feel the Chinese Monroe Doctrine is being built here in the region. As the Chinese get their act together and play on the world stage, this region is the first of a series of concentric circles."
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