Advertisement
China says Asean cooperation shouldn’t be ‘hollowed out’ in swipe at US
- Foreign Minister Wang Yi tells East Asia Summit the region should ‘be wary of pseudo-multilateralism’
- He also hits out at ‘groundless’ criticism over Beijing’s human rights record in Xinjiang and Hong Kong
Reading Time:2 minutes
Why you can trust SCMP
38
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi has warned against efforts to bypass Asean with new regional cooperation channels, in a veiled swipe at the United States and its allies.
Advertisement
Wang also took aim at what he said was “groundless” criticism and “platitudes” from the US and Japan over China’s human rights record in Xinjiang and Hong Kong, issues he said Association of Southeast Asian Nations members had stayed out of.
He made the remarks on Wednesday evening at the virtual East Asia Summit of foreign ministers from Asean, Australia, China, India, Japan, New Zealand, Russia, South Korea and the US.
Wang said multilateralism was the “correct path” to resolving complicated problems in the world, but the region should “be wary of all kinds of pseudo-multilateralism and, in particular, resist the use of multilateralism to foment bloc confrontation”.
“Asean’s centrality in regional cooperation should not be hollowed out, and the existing mature regional cooperation mechanisms should not be set up in another way,” he said, according to the Chinese foreign ministry readout.
Wang also accused the US and Japan of interfering in China’s affairs in Xinjiang and Hong Kong.
Advertisement
Advertisement