Chinese Premier Li Qiang’s trip to New Zealand, Australia and Malaysia was an important element in the complex “game” unfolding in the Indo-Pacific region, involving all the world’s leading powers. It took place in the second half of June.

From 13 to 20 June this year, Chinese Prime Minister Li Qiang was on a foreign tour, visiting New Zealand, Australia and Malaysia. It should be remembered that only three months earlier, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi had visited the first two of these countries. Wang Yi, by the way, is in charge of foreign affairs and the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China. Regional political background

The very fact that two of the five countries of the so-called “Anglo-Saxon world” are being visited by such high-ranking statesmen of one of the world’s leading powers after a very short interval testifies to the growing importance of the Southeast vector in China’s overall foreign policy course. There are, however, three important observations to be made.

First, the geography of Beijing’s interests and concerns, defined by the term “Southeast Vector”, extends far beyond the Southeast Asian sub-region that has recently been at the centre of the global political and information space. The competitive positioning of Beijing and Washington in the part of the Pacific Ocean south of the equator is becoming increasingly apparent. The role of front-runner in the struggle between the latter and the growing influence of the former is primarily (but not exclusively) assigned to Canberra and Wellington, which claim to be the main contenders for participation in potential anti-Chinese military-political configurations. It should be recalled that Australia and New Zealand are already members of the “Anglo-Saxon” intelligence organisation “Five Eyes” (FVEY).

Secondly, China’s increased south-east activity in recent months does not mean that the northeast vector is of secondary importance to it. The resumption of the China-Japan-Korea platform (after a break of almost four years) is proof of this. With the participation, incidentally, of the same Prime Minister, Li Qiang. A number of subsequent events in the Northeast Asian........

© New Eastern Outlook