Chinese President Xi Jinping told leaders of the 10-country Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) at a summit on Monday that Beijing would not “bully” its smaller regional neighbours, amid rising tension over the South China Sea.
Xi said China would never seek hegemony nor take advantage of its size to coerce smaller countries and would work with Asean to eliminate “interference”.
“China was, is, and will always be a good neighbour, good friend, and good partner of Asean,” Chinese state media quoted Xi as saying.
Asean groups include Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.
Xi told the summit that China and Asean had “cast off the gloom of the Cold War” — when the region was wracked by superpower competition and conflicts such as the Vietnam War — and had jointly maintained regional stability.
