China's rise impacts on regional economic, political ties: Singapore minister

The economic rise of China, marked by an annual average growth of 9 percent for the past 25 years, is reshaping the old relationships and balance of power in the region and the world, a senior Singaporean official said Friday in Singapore.

Speaking at the opening of a conference on China jointly organized by Lianhe Zaobao and the Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Minister in Prime Minister's Office Raymond Lim said China's rise has brought Asia into the center of international relations as a major actor.

"China's growth has led to a huge rise in Chinese demand for Southeast Asia goods, as can be seen in the large trade surpluses that Southeast Asian countries enjoy with China," Lim noted.

He said that the trade surplus of more than 20 billion US dollars enjoyed by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations ( ASEAN) over China in 2004, out of the total volume of bilateral trade of 105.9 billion US dollars, is expected to double by 2010.

Apart from sharing the fruits of its economic growth with ASEAN member states by offering a free trade agreement with the bloc as a whole, China also seeks strategic partnerships with countries in the region to reassure its neighbors that it "would not throw its new-found political weight around," according to Lim.

He added that China's rise will catalyze greater economic integration in Southeast Asia and ASEAN can not afford to be closed and insular as China continues to grow and increasingly opens up to the world.

Source: Xinhua