Manila, Hanoi's plots on South China Sea will never succeed

A number of countries have recently been causing trouble in the South China Sea.

On May 6, the Philippines illegally seized 11 Chinese fishermen and a boat in waters off China's Half Moon Shoal in the Nansha Islands.

Meanwhile, Vietnam continues to forcefully disrupt a Chinese company's normal drilling operations in the waters off China's Xisha Islands. In addition, enterprises in Vietnam invested by China and other countries have suffered from looting and arson.

While continuing their maritime confrontations with China, the Philippines and Vietnam have tried repeatedly to get the Association of Southeast Asian Nations to pass a resolution on the South China Sea issue, attempting to force ASEAN to take their side over the South China Sea issue with calls for the "consensus" that ASEAN values.

However, this attempt to hijack ASEAN has disrupted the regional group's integration process, becoming the most prominent negative factor hindering regional peace, stability and development.

Since its founding in 1967, ASEAN has been committed to regional peace and stability and focusing on economic integration and development. Since the construction of the ASEAN free trade area began in 1992, ASEAN's economic development has attracted increasing attention from powers outside the region. With the establishment of free trade areas with countries such as China, Japan, South Korea, India, Australia and New Zealand, ASEAN has become the center of East Asian regional economic cooperation.

According to ASEAN's development plan, the ASEAN economic community will be established in 2015, and strengthening regional connectivity, promoting foreign trade and attracting foreign investment have become the priority of ASEAN's current development. Most ASEAN countries are making efforts to accelerate community building and regional integration and to move forward to the realization of a master plan for the ASEAN Community.

However, at such a critical moment, the Philippines and Vietnam have gone against the trend of regional development and arbitrarily stirred up the South China Sea issue. By provoking maritime disputes under the pretext of so-called national interests, the Philippines and Vietnam attempt to hijack ASEAN in order to jointly confront China, resulting in escalating tensions in the South China Sea and greater risks to regional security.

These two unreasonably troublesome countries have distracted ASEAN from its focus on community building, spoiled the peaceful and stable environment that ASEAN needs for its development and hindered its integration process.

What the Philippines and Vietnam have done not only goes against ASEAN's development process, but also undermines ASEAN's basic principles.

ASEAN is a relatively loose regional organization with a unique mode of operation. The principle of reaching consensus through consultation without mandatory constraints is the main feature of the "ASEAN way".

The so-called non-mandatory consensus through consultation means that in the process of reaching consensus, ASEAN leaders should fully consult other decision-makers, take into account other decision-makers' opinions and feelings and, on this basis, leaders discuss and pass modest proposals and put forth comprehensive conclusions.

If unanimity cannot be achieved, ASEAN puts the "Y-X" principle into practice - part of the members agree with the relevant proposal and are willing to take part in collective action, and a few members agree with the proposal, but don't participate in collective action, then ASEAN can also pass a relevant resolution.

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