Rivals to Vie for Sway at Bandung

South China Morning Post

22 April 2015

China and Japan will be jockeying to extend their influence on two continents at this week’s gathering of leaders for the Asian-African Conference, according to analysts.

President Xi Jinping and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will join representatives from about 80 nations in Indonesia to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the 1955 conference that formed the basis of the Non-Aligned Movement several years later, in which emerging nations vowed to oppose colonialism.

Xi will fly to Indonesia following his visit to Pakistan.

The first Asian-African Conference was held in the Javanese city of Bandung and was attended by representatives of about 30 newly independent nations.

… Oh Ei Sun, an analyst at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore, said the rivalry between China and Japan was obvious, but that Southeast Asian nations were cautious about letting it overshadow the conference.

“There are still other players, such as Indonesia, and they do not want their agendas to be overridden by those of China and Japan,” he said.

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