Xi said in March that the Belt and Road initiative and the AIIB are open to all.
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“China insists on shelving disputes when they can’t be solved immediately, but that does not mean we cannot enhance our relations”. “So, we have to be very cautious when dealing with this so-called good friend”.
Xinhua reported Xi as saying that the two sides hope to consolidate their traditional friendship, “stick to mutually beneficial and win-win cooperation, reinforce the comprehensive strategic cooperative partnership and develop culture and people-to-people exchanges”.
While Japan doesn’t have a claim on the South China Sea islands, China is Japan’s biggest trading partner.
Xi made the remarks while meeting with Nguyen Phu Trong, general secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV) Central Committee.
China-Singapore cooperation has always been forward looking and pace-setting as the two countries will redefine their relations to keep abreast of the times and expand to various areas, said Chinese ambassador to Singapore Chen Xiaodong. He called on Vietnam to facilitate the investment and operations of Chinese businesses.
Analysts believe Xi’s party-to-party visit sought to bolster Vietnam’s pro-China faction through economic overtures. Before his plane touched down, police in Ho Chi Minh City, about 1,200 kilometers to the south, blocked 80 to 100 protesters from marching on the local Chinese consulate, according to two people who said they participated. “I was beaten up because of Xi Jinping”.
Xi is scheduled to give a speech to the Vietnamese lawmaking National Assembly on Friday, a rare address by a foreign head of state at the Communist dominated body. This could help Singapore firms tap the new wave of growth in the western region of China.
Mr Xi noted that while “Asia’s way to tackling these challenges is through consensus, trust deficit between certain countries have led to conflict from time to time”. Vietnam and China both claim the Paracel islands, which are under Chinese occupation after it ousted the U.S.-backed Saigon government in 1974, one year before the end of the Vietnam War.
China supports the building of the ASEAN community and backs Vietnam in hosting the APEC summit in 2017, Xi added.
The bilateral trade and investment relations have grown significantly.
“We will continue to fully examine how situations in the South China Sea will impact Japan’s security and what contributions Japan should make for the stability of this region”, Nakatani told reporters last week. Vietnam has said it is considering taking legal action against its neighbor, after the Philippines lodged a similar complaint with an global arbitration tribunal in the Hague.
Frequent exchanges of high-level visits, the success of two existing government-to-government projects, and the proposed third project in Chongqing will all inject fresh momentum into bilateral ties, he said. In spite of wariness amongst Vietnam’s political elite towards China’s intentions, London said that “the general view is there’s a merging crop of prospective leaders of the variety that sees worldwide integration as an opportunity more than a threat, and has a more circumspect view of Beijing”.
The move is likely to add to China’s irritation after a USA guided-missile destroyer sailed close to the man-made outcrops last week. Xi, like his predecessors, Hu Jintao and Jiang Zemin, is planning to meet representatives of Vietnamese young people on this trip.
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The erratic response underscores the divide between pro-China and pro-U.S. factions inside Vietnam’s opaque one-party politics. Initial assessments estimate Vietnam would gain the most from TPP, with exports expected to surge by 28 percent in the deal’s first decade.
