Brent Scowcroft Center Resident Senior Fellow Robert Manning writes for Global Times on China’s role in hosting the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Summit:
The pride, stature and global spotlight that comes with holding a major international meeting often becomes a factor influencing the host country’s behavior. As China is hosting the APEC leaders’ meeting, Beijing clearly wants to be seen as a gracious host and a cooperative partner.
The APEC meeting occurs in an Asia-Pacific where tensions have been mounting over territorial disputes, where competing trade agreements are in contention, and where, for the first time in several decades, many fear that regional stability may be at risk.
Against this backdrop, it appears that APEC may showcase a recalibration of Chinese policies in the region in an effort to bolster regional stability.
In recent weeks we have seen high-level Sino-Vietnamese diplomacy reaching accords on military-to-military ties aimed at better managing maritime differences as well as efforts to reset the bilateral relationship politically. Chinese President Xi Jinping recently told a senior envoy from Hanoi, “I hope the Vietnamese will make joint efforts with the Chinese to put the relationship back on the right track of development.”