Certain participating countries and Western media outlets improperly took advantage of the just ended East Asia summit to play up South China Sea issues, which is not in line with the summit's theme of promoting regional cooperation.
However, the summit proved fruitful, showing that good always prevails over evil. Cooperation is crucial to coping with common challenges, and East Asian countries have made joint efforts to shelve disputes and increase consensus.
Many East Asian countries have benefited from increasingly deep regional cooperation. The global financial crisis in 2008 did not strike even one East Asian country down, compared with the extremely destructive Asian financial crisis in 1997.
Certain economists noted that it was a crisis for the West rather than for East Asia. East Asian countries' strong ability to withstand crises comes from increasingly deep economic and trade cooperation, and the region has become a new growth role in the world economy.
Although certain East Asian countries remain highly dependent on European and U.S. markets, insightful people know clearly that East Asia is bound to rise due to solid regional cooperation.
Reaching consensus through dialogue and negotiation and looking out for each other is a reflection of Eastern values. Facts prove that it is an effective way to promote regional cooperation in East Asia.
South China Sea issues should be solved by claimant countries through bilateral dialogue and negotiation, which is an important principle for preventing wild speculation. Adherence to this principle will promote regional cooperation, and enhance the “core status” and “leading role” of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).
China has made great contributions to promoting regional cooperation in East Asia, and will continue to share the benefits of its peaceful development with all other countries.
