There are 21 members of The Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC), and its purpose is to ease trade throughout the member countries. The aims of APEC are noble and good, they are to create greater prosperity for the people of the region by promoting balanced, inclusive, sustainable, innovative and secure growth and by accelerating regional economic integration. Mark those words because we’ll come back to them. Since the creation of APEC, tariffs have been drastically reduced and trade restrictions eased. But all that has changed.
2018 was a very special year for APEC: firstly, it was held in the group’s and one of the region’s poorest economies, Papua New Guinea and more importantly, because under the Trump era, better referred to now as Trump 1.0, there were so many tensions that for the first time in its almost 30 year history, the Group could not agree on a formal joint statement.
What was most problematic in the statement was China’s problem with one line which was: “We agree to fight protectionism including all unfair trade practices”. APEC is all about open borders, easing restrictions, enhancing opportunities and as mentioned above, “by accelerating regional economic integration”. China agrees but it was clear at the time that, while the US were prepared to say this they agreed, the reality was very different.
Western media was reporting that China’s unfair trade practices had required the US to impose sanctions on them. Unfortunately, the White House release that had been referenced as the reason is no longer visible online. However, this interpretation and presentation of information by Western media seems to be either misunderstood, or perhaps willfully misrepresented. Since the 1954 Sino-Indian Agreement and reinforced at the Bandung Summit of 1955 in Indonesia, China has followed what it calls the Five Pillars for Peaceful Coexistence. They are: mutual respect for each other’s territorial integrity and sovereignty; mutual non aggression; mutual non-interference in each other’s internal affairs; equality and co-operation for mutual benefit; and peaceful co-existence. These are not military pillars, there is no mention of “defence” in any of them and to this day, they dictate China’s relationships. Every single decision made under China’s foreign policy has followed these same principles. Every announcement made, in APEC, G20, ASEAN, BRICS, the SCO and all other global or regional fora where China speaks, reiterates cooperation rather than confrontation and yet, US politicians and their media continually report the opposite.
The US had issues with China’s trade policies but has never taken them to the body which deals with them, the World Trade Organisation (WTO). Legally, if there are problems between two sides over trade matters, they are taken to the WTO for arbitration, the WTO can do that, if there is no agreement between the parties, the WTO can escalate the matter to a legally recognised mechanism for a decision, a final dispute settlement called the Appellate Body. The problem is that the USA has blocked the appointment of every judge nominated to sit on that body and therefore, there is no functionality. The US deliberately stalls the legal mechanism in order to “play victim” and then impose its own arbitrary sanctions.
That day in 2018, set the tone for the rhetoric and the action of the USA ever since. Trump started what was to become two, and now it’s looking more and more like three, Presidential terms in a row (the Biden Administration liked his tariffs so much they expanded on them). The USA sees China as an economic, ideologic and potentially kinetic threat to themselves and they pass this fear onto their allies through military and economic coercion. Mike Pence, attending on behalf of President Trump declared that China has “taken advantage of the United States for many, many years and those days are over.” while in the same forum, President Xi Jinping spoke much more openly about the need for global cooperation and trade and said all differences could be bridged “through consultation.” There are stark differences in how the two Administrations see their positions in the world. However, the way the rest of the world sees China and the USA is what really matter and, in APEC and BRICS, we are seeing exactly where those differences lie.
Xinhua, one of China’s leading and most trusted media groups reported that “much has changed in recent years” and China needs to turn back the tide to bring out the best of APEC once more. It was created to bring stability into the Region, it’s not doing that, it was created to improve prosperity and, while it has done so, there seems to be many hinderances and blockages holding back further development, it is aimed to implement free trade but one member country has sanctions against several other members. Of course, the usual criticism of Xinhua is that they merely “parrot CPC talking points” but this report does not just cite China’s views, it cites representatives from several different member economies including Papua New Guinea, Mexico, Australia, the Philippines and even critics of the US policies from the United States.
Make no mistake, if there was no developed world, there would be no developing world. Since 1588, when the British defeated the Spanish Armada, the world has been subject to Western colonialism. Imagine if those colonialists had entered what they called “the New World” with their own version of Five Pillars for Peaceful Coexistence how different today’s world would have become.
Many are saying that APEC and the G20 are no longer either viable or necessary but there is disagreement. These two summits are both valid and useful indicators of change. The Global majority, those people who we have long termed the New World, Third World, the Under-developed world or the Global South know this and this APEC meeting, as well as the coming G20 in Brazil are the first opportunities, outside of BRICS where China is a founding member, for China to take a leading role.
The USA knows this. Biden is, as the entire world acknowledges, diminished, his leadership is all but over and he has limited power to do anything other than mutter platitudes, decisions he makes now will be rendered useless over the coming weeks when he hands over the keys to the White House to Trump and headlines such as “A diminished Biden heads to APEC summit in Peru, overshadowed by China’s Xi” as well as “Biden heads to international summits in Peru and Brazil as world leaders brace for Trump presidency” are being openly published in US media; these are clear indicators that the US is starting to become aware and they are themselves showing the world that we are watching, in real time, the end of an era of US primacy into an era of shared opportunities.
China has never claimed primacy, hegemony or even leadership but, as the leading global economy with a vision of a shared and co-operative future, there is little doubt that the rest of the world will look to China to show leadership. But leadership with Chinese characteristics, cooperative, collaborative and mutually beneficial. APEC and the G20 are not irrelevant, they are the platforms from which these positive changes can be made.
Jerry Grey is a former British Police officer who was a general manager in a multi-national security company based in Australia for 17 years. He has lived, worked, travelled extensively and studied in China for almost two decades. He holds a Master Degree in cross cultural change management. Jerry Grey is a freelance writer living in Southern China's Guangdong province.
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