In the wake of Davos, and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney’s message that the “old order” was over and that middle powers now needed to pursue a “variable geometry” of partnerships, a Chinese think tank head has praised the 11-member Association of South-East Asian Nations as having a world view that “suddenly looks like the smartest strategy in the room”.
“South-East Asia has survived by refusing to view the world in black and white. It doesn’t do ‘zero-sum’,” wrote Ding Jie, director of the Centre for International Relations Studies at the Academy of Contemporary China and World Studies in Beijing.
“Stability here isn’t achieved by dominance; it’s achieved by balance. Asean’s value lies in being a connector, not a barrier. It welcomes investment from East and West not out of naivety, but because resilience depends on diversification. In a fractured world, the ability to talk to everyone is not a lack of conviction; it is a competitive advantage.”
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