CASS releases a report on China’s relations with neighboring countries at a seminar on April 9. Photo: Zhu Gaolei/CSST

The cover of the report Photo: Zhu Gaolei/CSST

The Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS) released the Development Report on the Relations Between China and Neighboring Countries (2021) at a seminar on April 9.

Edited by CASS President Xie Fuzhan, the report is the first of the Blue Book series on China’s relations with neighboring countries. 

Neighboring areas are of great significance to China’s opening up, development, and stability, Xie said at the seminar. Attaching importance to relations with neighboring countries is an inherent requirement for China to implement high-level opening up and build a new development pattern.

“Our country is in a critical period of realizing the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation. Development is still the top priority, and a stable surrounding environment is needed,” Xie noted. 

The world today is undergoing major changes unseen in a century. Faced with the profound and complex adjustments of the international economic and political landscape, China has adhered to the principle of dialogue without confrontation, and partnership without alliance, Xie noted. The country has been constantly improving partnerships with neighboring countries, deepening mutually beneficial cooperation and interconnection, and pioneering a new scenario featuring contribution, shared benefits, and win-win situations.

The report covers political, economic, security, cultural, and environmental cooperation between China and neighboring countries, said CASS Member Xing Guangcheng. This collaborative work analyzes the status quo of China’s relations with neighboring countries from an academic perspective and tries to grasp its development trend, providing academic and intellectual support for the steady development of relations between China and neighboring countries. 

From a macro level, the report analyzes the interaction between China and its six surrounding regions in 2020. The report states that China has long been committed to promoting regional cooperation in Northeast Asia. Regional cooperation is progressing slowly, however, due to factors such as regional hotspot issues and bilateral relations within Northeast Asia. As such, new concepts are needed to propel a new cooperation framework.

China’s cooperation with Central Asian countries in fighting the pandemic has consolidated friendships and strategic partnerships between these regions. The strategic partnership between China and Central Asian countries has remained stable, and cooperation in various fields has continued to advance, according to the report. 

Relations between China and West Asian countries are progressing steadily, political mutual trust has been significantly improved, and economic and trade cooperation has reached new milestones, the report says.

The China-ASEAN Free Trade Area has entered a new era of strategic partnership for peace and prosperity, and bilateral economic and trade cooperation has been improving against headwinds. China and ASEAN have become each other’s biggest trading partners, and construction of the free trade zone has entered a new stage, according to the report. 

Economic and trade cooperation between China and South Asia has been slightly damaged due to the pandemic and geopolitics. However, there is great potential for cooperation. China and South Asia should make full use of existing multilateral and bilateral mechanisms to deepen mutually beneficial cooperation, the report suggests.

The relationship between China and Pacific island countries maintains a momentum of rapid development, the report concludes, noting that the two sides have innovated with communication methods and exchanged anti-pandemic information, boosting steady cooperation. 

The report also focuses on China-Russia relations, China-India relations, China-Japan relations, and China-South Korea relations. In addition, it provides insights on such topics as the legal risks of the joint construction of the Belt and Road among China and neighboring countries, US factors’ impact on the security governance of China’s borderland, the US intervention in the South China Sea in 2020, and China’s cooperation with neighboring countries in fighting the pandemic in 2020.