Yang Cheng：Analysts misread role of CICA summit

Illustration: Liu Rui/GT

In a few days' time, Shanghai will host the Fourth Summit of the Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia (CICA). As a large emerging economy at a time when global power is shifting and the regional order is transforming, China's hosting of this diplomatic event has stirred international attention.

The CICA summit this time is the largest yet, which makes some political analysts believe China is showing its diplomatic ambitions under a new leadership. The West and some neighboring countries have interpreted the notion that Asian countries should take the lead to resolve Asian affairs raised by Beijing as its "Monroe Doctrine."

Many global observers believe that it has shown that China is more prone to compete with the US over the dominance in the Asia-Pacific region and is attempting to reset the regional security pattern by making use of the CICA mechanism initiated by Kazakhstan in 1992.

However, comparing China's neighborhood policies with  the "Monroe Doctrine" is a misperception and citing CICA as proof is biased.

During its establishment, CICA learned from the operational structure of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, which was originally established during the Cold War to serve as a communication channel between the East and the West bloc.

Inclusiveness is the core characteristic of CICA, as shown by that both Pakistan and India and Palestine and Israel are member states. It is hard to imagine that CICA, which promotes mutual respect and tolerance, can be manipulated by China to confront other powers. Such thinking is anathema not only to CICA itself but also to its member states.

China does attach great importance to the upcoming summit, but it is not because the country is seeking regional hegemony or because it wants to dominate Asian affairs.

China's first priority in this case is the urgent need to maintain and solidify relations with Kazakhstan. CICA was initiated by Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev and is an integral part of Kazakhstan's state-building and identity formation since the fall of the Soviet Union.

Kazakhstan is an important strategic cooperative partner of China in Central Asia and a key member of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, also a vital part of the emerging notion of the Silk Road economic belt.

Meanwhile, China's active approach in CICA is driven by the fact that Asia is facing increasingly severe challenges and threats.

For example, the situation in post-2014 Afghanistan is still uncertain. There is a potential spillover of risks in the region. The Afghan issue affects the interests of all CICA members. Moreover, the regionalization and globalization of Islamic extremism has become a global security conundrum. CICA can be a new platform to eliminate these conflict factors.

The development of CICA matches the trend of the transformation of international institutions. Strategists have become aware that the future global order will be more reliant on regional organizations.

That China stresses "Asian countries should take the lead to resolve Asian affairs" does not mean excluding external powers but emphasizing the role of Asian countries in regional governance.

This has two-fold implications. First, the emergence of many Asian economies shows that Asian countries now have greater capacity to maintain regional peace and promote regional development. They ought to provide more public products rather than relying on the outside.

Second, Asian affairs have uniquely complicated characteristics. According to Western theories, the West expects to export its model so as to transform the non-Western world including Asia. However, Asia needs special governance, due to the complicated political, economic and social patterns in this region. Outsiders hardly take this into consideration, as witnessed in the West's failures in Iraq and Afghanistan.  The special conditions of each sub-region or country should be taken into consideration, or even a panacea can become toxic.

The West, especially the US, should not view China's proposals in CICA as conspiracies. The US is an observer state in CICA and will participate in many activities. If China wants to set up an international institution to counter the US and replace its regional role, it doesn't need to count on an institution where many internal conflicts are waiting to be solved.

CICA is not an anti-US or anti-West alliance. The West should not over-interpret it.

The author is an associate professor at the School of Advanced International and Area Studies, East China Normal University. opinion@globaltimes.com.cn