By Luke Hunt
Leaders of the 10-nation ASEAN bloc have laid the final groundwork for the establishment of an integrated economic community by 2015, but rifts have emerged over how to handle Chinese hegemony following the 20th annual summit of the group.
As the summit was wrapped up, key documents were approved that covered workers’ rights, drug initiatives and the overarching declaration of “One Community One Destiny” designed to pave a way for a cherished economic community encompassing about 500 million people.
Members also formally called on Western countries to lift sanctions against Burma following last weekend’s by-elections that resulted in pro-democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi and her National League for Democracy (NLD) winning the vast majority of the 45 seats on offer.
However, China’s growing assertiveness and its disputes over the Spratly and Paracel islands in the South China Sea, particularly with Vietnam and the Philippines, cast a shadow over the meeting, which had clearly angered Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen.
Hun Sen, speaking at a post-summit press conference, was upset with suggestions that Cambodia was acting as China’s unofficial proxy in a bloc that’s often at political loggerheads with Beijing. He then made a shrill attack on analysts and commentators who question the relationship between Phnom Penh and Beijing or suggest that a conflict between China and members of ASEAN over the Spratly’s is possible, labeling them as crazy, lazy and stupid.
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