Recently, netizens have inquired with the Chinese Embassy in Thailand about the details of President Xi Jinping’s state visits to Viet Nam, Malaysia and Cambodia. The relevant questions and answers are published as follows:
Question 1: President Xi Jinping has been invited to pay state visits to Viet Nam, Malaysia and Cambodia. This was President Xi ’s first trip this year and one focused on three Southeast Asian countries. The visits have drawn significant attention from the international community. Can you share more information about the visits?
Answer: President Xi Jinping’s trip was the first overseas tour of the Chinese head of state this year.The visits prioritized fostering good-neighborly relations and advancing mutually beneficial cooperation,centered on building a community with a shared future and guided by the principles of amity, sincerity, mutual benefit, and inclusiveness. It charted a new blueprint for China and Southeast Asian countries to jointly promote stability and prosperity, yielding over a hundred cooperative outcomes. Leaders of the three countries spoke highly of the important initiatives proposed by President Xi Jinping and extended the highest-level protocol and warmest hospitality to welcome his visit. These gestures sent a clear signal of their profound commitment to prioritizing relations with China and deepening comprehensive cooperation. The visits achieved a complete success, establishing a new milestone in the development of China’s relations with Southeast Asian countries.
Question 2: What were the key highlights of President Xi Jinping’s visits?
Answer: China and Viet Nam resolved to accelerate the building of a strategic community with a shared future that carries strategic significance and jointly launched the China-Viet Nam Railway Cooperation Mechanism. This railway will inject stronger development momentum into the China-Indochina Peninsula Economic Corridor and serve as a landmark project for high-quality Belt and Road cooperation between China and Viet Nam. China-Malaysia relations and China-Cambodia relations have been elevated to new levels: a high-level strategic China-Malaysia community with a shared future and an all-weather China-Cambodia community with a shared future in the new era, respectively. China-Malaysia friendly cooperation has entered a fast track, with both sides agreeing to become a pacesetter for regional cooperation on new quality productive forces. China and Cambodia signed 37 cooperation documents, which will contribute to Cambodia’s national development, people’s well-being, and long-term growth.
Additionally, China and Viet Nam upgraded their "3+3" strategic dialogue mechanism, covering diplomacy, defense and public security, to the ministerial level. Meanwhile, China-Malaysia and China-Cambodia "2+2" diplomatic and defense dialogue mechanisms will be established.
Question 3: Against the backdrop of the U.S. waging a trade war and disrupting international trade order, what is the special significance of President Xi Jinping’s visits?
Answer: Recently, the United States has disregarded international rules and recklessly imposed tariffs, with Southeast Asian countries bearing the brunt. Such practices severely infringe on the legitimate rights and interests of all countries in the world, blatantly violate World Trade Organization rules, gravely undermine the rules-based multilateral trading system, and pose a serious threat to the stability of the global economic order.
During his visits, President Xi Jinping emphasized that China and neighboring countries should strengthen coordination and cooperation, jointly oppose unilateralism. Guided by the Asian values of peace, cooperation, openness and inclusiveness, so as to safeguard the bright prospects of our Asian family. China will pursue high-quality development, expand high-standard opening-up, and share development opportunities with all countries, especially its neighbors. China's mega market is always open to neighboring countries, and China welcomes more high-quality products from ASEAN members.
President Xi Jinping’s important remarks have bolstered confidence. To Lam, General Secretary of the Communist Party of Viet Nam Central Committee, stated that Viet Nam is willing to enhance coordination with China to uphold international trade rules and abide by agreements signed between the two sides. Anwar Ibrahim, Prime Minister of Malaysia, remarked that China is a rational, strong, and reliable partner, ASEAN will not concede to any unilaterally imposed tariffs and will seek greater strength and maintain economic growth through unity and cooperation. Hun Manet, Prime Minister of Cambodia, expressed Cambodia’s readiness to deepen coordination and cooperation with China to safeguard the common interests of both sides.
Question 4: How will China strengthen economic and trade cooperation with these countries to achieve common development?
Answer: Through this visit, President Xi Jinping and the leaders of Viet Nam, Malaysia, and Cambodia reached extensive consensus on further deepening bilateral and regional economic and trade cooperation. As the long-standing largest trading partner of these three countries, China welcomes more high-quality products from them to enter the Chinese market, and encourages outstanding Chinese enterprises to invest and operate in these countries, which could contribute to their industrial development.
China and Viet Nam will leverage the China-Viet Nam Railway Cooperation Mechanism to achieve seamless connectivity of supply chains between the two countries and expand cooperation in emerging fields such as 5G, artificial intelligence and green development. China and Malaysia will continue to strengthen integrated development, prioritizing cooperation in digital economy, green economy, blue economy, and tourism economy.
China and Cambodia have formulated two cooperative plans, the "Industrial Development Corridor" and the “Fish and Rice Corridor”, to help Cambodia to build a modern industrial production hub and advance the technological and industrial modernization of its agriculture.
Question 5: With China’s relations with Southeast Asian countries growing increasingly close, what inspiration and significance does Pre’s three-countries tour hold for China-Thailand relations?
Answer: President Xi Jinping’s successful visits to the three Southeast Asian countries not only signify the deepening and advancement of China’s traditional friendly cooperation with these countries but also embody the critical strategic consensus and unwavering political mutual trust between China and its partners to stand together against the backdrop of a world undergoing once-in-a-century transformations and the rising tide of unilateral bullying and hegemony.China and Thailand are close neighbors connected by mountains and rivers, relatives with intertwined bloodlines, and partners with a shared future. China is Thailand’s largest trading partner, primary export market for agricultural products, leading source of foreign investment, and top origin of foreign tourists. From the 1997 Asian financial crisis and the Indian Ocean tsunami to the Wenchuan earthquake and the COVID-19 pandemic, the two countries and their peoples have always stood together through thick and thin, sharing weal and woe.
Faced with common threats and challenges such as “reckless tariffs” and unilateral bullying, China and Thailand should prioritize the broader and long-term picture, enhance communication and coordination, and jointly address these issues. China respects Thailand’s approach of safeguarding its legitimate rights and interests through negotiations based on its national circumstances. We will work with Thailand and other Southeast Asian countries to safeguard the international free trade system, uphold global fairness and justice, and protect the mutually beneficial China-Thailand economic and trade cooperation that serves the interests of both peoples. China will further expand opening-up and share the dividends of its development with friendly neighbors. We welcome more high-quality Thai products to enter China’s vast market.