Close regional relations leave no place where Washington can drive wedge: China Daily editorial

The 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China reaffirmed that the country remains steadfast in pursuing friendship and cooperation with all countries.

The resolution adopted at the closing session of the congress emphasized that China is committed to a mutually beneficial strategy of opening up to the outside world as a fundamental national policy and to actively promoting reform of the global governance system to make it fairer and more equitable. This should have served to consolidate the world's confidence that China will continue to remain a promoter of common development of the world and advocate for a just international order.

That several foreign leaders from Asia, Africa and Europe are visiting Beijing from Sunday demonstrates the great importance the international community attaches to developing relations with China, as well as China's resolve to open its door wider to the world.

Their visits show that China's connectivity with the world is not subject to the will of a few politicians in Washington.

As the first foreign leader visiting China after the congress, Nguyen Phu Trong, general secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam Central Committee, will usher in one of China's busiest schedules of foreign receptions over the past nearly three years, when he pays a visit from Sunday to Wednesday.

This is not only a telling sign of the tremendous attention China is paying to its neighborhood diplomacy, but also of Vietnam's willingness to deepen ties with China, despite the US administration doubling down on its efforts to isolate China.

Due to Vietnam's increasingly important position in the global supply chains, its identity as a major disputing party in the South China Sea issue, and it being a member of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, Washington has never stopped trying to drive a wedge between Hanoi and Beijing and attempting to persuade it to join its endeavors to contain China.

That explains why a series of senior US officials have visited Vietnam over the past few years.

However, as is the same for most regional countries, these attempts have not prevented or deflected Vietnam from developing cooperative relations with China. Instead, they have only served to show the true color of Washington's intentions.

The US strategists should be aware that the special ties between China and its neighbors, which are the fruit of their historical and cultural ties and close economic exchanges, mean that their attempts to drive wedges between China and its neighbors will prove to be futile. These countries do not want to be pawns of the US in its power play with China.

Although coerced by the US to do its bidding, the regional countries have already seen through the cheating nature of the US' duplicitous discourse on China. Ironically, it is the efforts of the US to portray China as an enemy which has made them know better which country is truly their friend and spurred them to deepen ties with China.