Over the past two years, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi has made three tours of South-east Asia, where he visited all 10 Asean countries. On each, he came with offers of vaccines, economic aid and investments to a pandemic-battered region.
When Asean and China commemorated 30 years of dialogue relations last November, China's largesse was also on display - in addition to vaccines there was a pledge to buy up to US$150 billion (S$203 billion) worth of farm products from Asean over the next five years. "China was, is, and will always be Asean's good neighbour, good friend and good partner," said President Xi Jinping then.
Already a subscriber? Log in
Read the full story and more at $9.90/month
Get exclusive reports and insights with more than 500 subscriber-only articles every month
ST One Digital
$9.90/month
No contract
ST app access on 1 mobile device
Unlock these benefits
All subscriber-only content on ST app and straitstimes.com
Easy access any time via ST app on 1 mobile device
E-paper with 2-week archive so you won't miss out on content that matters to you
