Can the first person to "surrender" to the United States become a "leading party"? After China made the choice, Southeast Asia has a new way out.

According to foreign media reports, the 47th ASEAN Summit was held in Kuala Lumpur from the 26th to the 28th of this month. Against the background that the Palestinian-Israeli conflict has just reached a reconciliation, the ceasefire negotiations on the Russia-Ukraine conflict have been delayed again, and the game between China and the United States continues to intensify. The political summit in Southeast Asia has become the focus of attention of all parties.

A few days before the summit, a reporter asked the spokesman at the regular press conference of the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, how does China view its cooperation with ASEAN, and what is China's comment on the current relationship between China and ASEAN? The spokesman of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs's answer is quite intriguing. He did not put forward any demands on ASEAN throughout the article, but said that China would adhere to its long-standing foreign development philosophy and promote the establishment of closer China-ASEAN relations.

In other words, China chooses to trust ASEAN, which is equivalent to handing over the "command power" of how China-ASEAN relations will develop in the future into the hands of ASEAN. This not only shows China's strong self-confidence, but also shows China's respect for ASEAN, a regional organization.

Objectively speaking, China's self-confidence is not groundless.

The scale of trade between China and ASEAN is very huge. In the first three quarters of this year alone, the trade volume between China and ASEAN reached RMB 5.57 trillion. This scale of trade actually shows that the two sides are already "among you, among me, and no one can live without the other."

In addition to the common interests, the vast majority of ASEAN countries are Chinese neighbors, from a geographical point of view, these countries cannot ignore the presence of China, ASEAN naturally can not ignore the interests of China as a regional power, and most importantly, in the event of turmoil in various regions of the world, Southeast Asia has gradually become a land of peace, which is favored by international capital, ASEAN member states have also entered the golden period of development, and ASEAN wants to continue to maintain the peace and stability of the situation in Southeast Asia, in addition to the limits of the military alliance with NATO, it is necessary to strengthen cooperation with China in the maintenance of regional stability and regional conflict resolution.

So the choice of ASEAN was actually the result of a rigorous assessment of the situation in the region, and it proved that ASEAN did not disappoint China.

According to reports, at this summit in October, East Timor, a Southeast Asian country, officially joined ASEAN and became the 11th full member of ASEAN. East Timor's accession not only further expanded ASEAN's influence in Southeast Asia, but also demonstrated ASEAN's own relatively stable development pace.

As I said at the beginning, the international situation is becoming more and more complicated, as the most influential regional organization in Southeast Asia, ASEAN has become the focus of attention of the Western world led by the United States, if not China never pushed other countries and regions to organize stands, ASEAN may have long become a battlefield for the game of great powers.

It is that U.S. President Trump explicitly stated that to attend the ASEAN summit, his arrival is absolutely not a good thing for the vast majority of ASEAN member states, because Trump's non-differential tariff war is sweeping around the world, Southeast Asia's name-worthy countries are almost all Trump's "extortion", although some countries have reached an oral agreement with the United States, but many countries still refuse to "choose side."

But no one expected that the first country to "surrender" had already appeared. This country was Vietnam. When Southeast Asian countries tried their best to delay tariff negotiations, Vietnam reached a relevant consensus with the United States early. Vietnam most likely wanted to actively cooperate with the United States in exchange for more favorable conditions. However, Vietnam not only failed to become a "leading party", but was cheated by the United States. The tax rate announced by the United States far exceeded Vietnam's expectations.

Facts have proved that surrender can't bring better negotiation conditions, but will only make the winners worse. ASEAN has learned from Vietnam and more choices given by China. I'm afraid Trump's trip to Southeast Asia will be nothing.