PEACOCK DANCE: Cambodian dancers perform at the seventh China-ASEAN Expo in Nanning, capital of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, on October 20 (HUANG XIAOBANG)

In addition, the Chinese Government has pledged support for cooperation on education and the training of top-level talent. It will help expand the number of students from ASEAN countries studying in China and Chinese students studying in ASEAN countries to 100,000 each by 2020. What's more, the Chinese Government will provide 10,000 scholarships to ASEAN countries and invite 10,000 young teachers, scholars and students from ASEAN countries to visit China in the next decade.

The longstanding problem of a lack of mutual recognition of educational degrees between China and Malaysia will be solved in the near future. And the two countries' governments are discussing the implementation of mutual exemptions of tourist visas, which would allow citizens of the two nations to travel back and forth freely.

Seeking harmony

Traditional Chinese culture is heavily focused on harmony and the concept has served as a driving force in China-ASEAN relations. Harmony can only be achieved by accepting differences and recognizing diversity in the world.

China has always followed these guidelines in relations with ASEAN. It supports ASEAN's leading role in regional cooperation and advocates a win-win result, with development as the focus, cooperation as the method, and common peace, prosperity and stability as the goal.

However, due to ideological differences and China's rise, Southeast Asian countries become increasingly concerned. A number of people in these countries still subscribe to the "China threat" theory.

Recently, some Southeast Asian countries, with the help of the United States, pressured China on the South China Sea territorial disputes. This went against the concept of harmony, which the two sides have pursued throughout history. The disputes hindered China's efforts to create an amicable, secure and prosperous neighborhood, while damaging its international image.

In fact, not all ASEAN countries regard China as a threat. Malaysia, for instance, strongly approves of China's diplomatic concepts, which place great importance on harmony.

Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak said as early as 600 years ago, Zheng He, a great Chinese navigator, led several powerful fleets to Malacca, but never occupied an inch of Malaysian land. Instead, he brought advanced civilization to local people and sowed the seeds of friendship between the two nations. Indonesian President Susilo also praised Zheng He's voyage to Indonesia as a journey of peace and friendship.

In order to move forward successfully, it is essential for ASEAN to fully understand the concept of harmony and to substantially strengthen cooperation with China amid the changing world pattern.

Strengthening coordination

Strengthening regional coordination is an effective way to deepen China-ASEAN relations. In addition to bilateral relations between China and individual ASEAN countries, China-ASEAN relations also include the two sides' coordination and cooperation in regional affairs.

As an important regional player, China became an indispensable force in regional cooperation in the late 1990s, when East Asian cooperation was launched.

Today, this region is facing new challenges, including frequent natural disasters, the intertwining of traditional and non-traditional security problems, fierce strategic competition between major powers, tighter links between political, economic and security issues and emerging problems in regional integration. Coordinating stances to promote regional cooperation will be a severe test for both China and ASEAN.

It is possible that with the expansion of the East Asia Summit and the "ASEAN Plus" mechanisms, China-ASEAN relations will be impacted by the competition among big countries. The ASEAN Plus Three mechanism will also face challenges. Strengthened coordination between China and ASEAN is not only an effective means of deepening China-ASEAN relations, but can consolidate East Asian regional cooperation, as well.

The author is a researcher with the China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations