"The recent four-day visit of Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi to Southeast Asia has underscored the implementation of China’s good neighbour’s diplomacy. Wang Yi firstly visited Myanmar and remarked that China supports its government’s plan to hold fresh elections and return the country to a “democratic transition” – a gesture showing China’s respect to Myanmar’s peaceful political transition and objection to any foreign intervention. After the removal of Aung San Suu Kyi government, the Myanmar military regime has encountered a legitimacy problem, especially in light of the fierce fighting with ethnic minority armed forces in the northern regions. Some of the ethnic armed forces are composed of Hans Chinese who are also supportive of China. Although China mediated in the conflicts between the Myanmar military regime and some ethnic armed forces, the ceasefire has recently been broken in June as some rebels captured a military command post in Lashio in the Shan state, where the violent conflicts between the military and the Hans-dominated Kokang forces (who according to some rumours received weapons from mysteriously unknown external forces) have undermined the border security as some Chinese in mainland China were wounded innocently by shells fired from Myanmar. The military junta in Myanmar has failed to control the whole country as online gambling, telecom fraud syndicates and human smuggling persisted. Recently the military has smashed the telecommunication fraud syndicates amid unsubstantiated rumours that a minority of rotten elements in the military supported a few kingpins of telecom fraud syndicates, which deceived a lot of mainland Chinese in China. After the diplomatic lobbying and efforts from China, the Myanmar government dismantled the telecom syndicates and extradited thousands of the Chinese organizers, participants and victims of these criminal syndicates back to China – a triumph of the joint Sino-Myanmar combat against cross-border crime. On August 16, Wang Yi met the former chair of Myanmar’s State Peace and Development Council, U Than Swe, who said China is Myanmar’s brother and friendly neighbour, and who hoped that China would continue to help Myanmar prevent external interference and maintain domestic stability. Wang Yi said that the Sino-Myanmar brotherly friendship is important to China’s neighbourhood diplomacy, and that China upholds the five principles of peaceful coexistence with Myanmar on a shared future. He added that China is keen to deepen the Belt and Road cooperation with Myanmar, develop the China-Myanmar Economic Corridor, ensure the smooth operation of the Sino-Myanmar oil and gas pipeline project, combat cross-border crime, and to collaborate in agricultural development and people-to-people exchange. U Than Swe emphasized Myanmar’s support of the one-China principle, backed up China’s Belt and Road Initiative and welcomed the idea of having a shared future for mankind, and he pledged to work with China to safeguard border security through the joint combat against cross-border crime. After the diplomatic lobbying and efforts from China, the Myanmar government dismantled the telecom syndicates and extradited thousands of the Chinese organizers, participants and victims of these criminal syndicates back to China – a triumph of the joint Sino-Myanmar combat against cross-border crime. Wang Yi’s visit to Myanmar followed not only the trip of Chinese special envoy Deng Xijun’s trip to meet Myanmar’s junta chief Min Aung Hlaing last year, but also the arrival of new Chinese ambassador Ma Jia in Myanmar. China has reportedly supplied weapons to the military junta which encounters Western sanctions, but it is in Beijing’s interest to maintain border security for the sake of enhancing and deepening all kinds of cooperation. As such, Wang Yi’s visit was timely and necessary. Wang Yi also went to Thailand where he met Laos deputy prime minister and foreign minister Saleumxay Kommasith in Chiang Mai. The Sino-Laos trade has risen with the full capacity of the Sino-Laotian railway. Wang Yi remarked that China supports Laos to be a rotating chair of ASEAN, that Beijing is keen to see Laos enhancing its regional and international influence, and that China is eager to accelerate infrastructure development along the Sino-Laos railway, to deepen high-level and people-to-people exchange and to fight cross-border crime. Saleumxay expressed his appreciation to China for promoting peace talks in Myanmar’s northern regions as border peace and regional stability are the common interests of Laos and China. During the 9th Lancang-Mekong Cooperation (LMC) Foreign Ministers Meeting, Wang Yi conducted informal discussion with not only Saleumxay but also Myanmar foreign minister U Than Swe and Thailand foreign affairs permanent secretary Eksiri Pintaruchi. They came to a consensus that all sides would combat cross-border crimes, including online gambling, telecom fraud and human smuggling, which have affected the personal safety and properties of ordinary people. China’s Global Security Initiative, according to Wang Yi, secured the warm responses from Myanmar, Laos and Thailand. Since 2023, about 50,000 people who were involved in cross-border crimes have been arrested by the joint efforts of these countries. The LMC was formed in 2016 with the participation of China, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam to strengthen connectivity, production capacity, socio-economic development, poverty alleviation, and water resources and agricultural management in the region. Wang Yi also said that the borders of China, Myanmar, Thailand and Laos have to be guarded while criminal intelligence will have to be shared together through a ministerial-level law enforcement and security meeting in the Lancang-Mekong region. Technology, equipment and judicial cooperation will have to be utilized and strengthened to combat cross-border crime. Wang Yi’s visit was politically significant. First and foremost, China’s good neighbourhood diplomacy can be seen so as to counter the misperception of the so-called “China threat” as propagated by those foreigners hawkish and hostile to China without a deeper understanding of the turbulence of Chinese history. Wang Yi’s visit to Southeast Asia has revealed the implementation of China’s good neighbourhood diplomacy under which the joint combat against cross-border crime has become a precondition for closer socio-economic and sustainable development, infrastructure expansion, mutual investment, expanded tourism, and more intensive people-to-people as well as cultural and educational exchange Second, the Lancang-Mekong region is geopolitically and economically strategic for the implementation of China’s Belt and Road Initiative, Global Security Initiative, Global Civilization Initiative and the common destiny for mankind. Combining regional security issues with infrastructure development, socio-economic and sustainable development, China is keen to create a peaceful and mutually economically prosperous environment in Southeast Asia through the realization of its good neighbourhood diplomacy. Take the example of Sino-Thailand relations. China is Thailand’s biggest trading partner while Thailand provides a huge market for China’s Electric Vehicles. Chinese tourists amount to 3.5 million in 2023 and the number is expected to increase with the introduction of a mutual visa waiver scheme. Although Thailand has traditionally been an ally of the US, China has been adopting a good neighbourhood diplomacy to woo the support of Thailand for the sake of balancing the US influence. Third, China accurately targets at the joint combat against cross-border crime so that other issues will be tackled more smoothly and systematically, including detailed visit and visa arrangements, mutual investment, the personal and property safety of Chinese investors, and the minimization of mainland Chinese victims of cross-border online gambling, cross-border casinos, human smuggling, drugs trafficking and telecom fraud. Fourth, Wang Yi’ visit came at a time when China criticized the Philippines for continuous provocation in the South China Sea, like a military NC-212 aircraft entering the airspace over China’s Huangyan Island. Objectively speaking, the Philippines leadership has shifted to a more militarily hawkish position toward the territorial disputes with China since 2022. It remains to be seen how the Ferdinand Marcos Jr leadership can rein in its own hawkish elements so that economic pragmatism and peace can and will continue to prevail over ultranationalist fervour in a new Cold War era during which ideological politics are threatening world peace. Wang Yi’s peaceful moves and good neighbourhood diplomacy to Southeast Asian states perhaps made a gesture, indirectly or unintentionally, to the Philippines leadership that China remains a peace-loving country. In conclusion, Wang Yi’s visit to Southeast Asia has revealed the implementation of China’s good neighbourhood diplomacy under which the joint combat against cross-border crime has become a precondition for closer socio-economic and sustainable development, infrastructure expansion, mutual investment, expanded tourism, and more intensive people-to-people as well as cultural and educational exchange. From a broader perspective, China’s Belt and Road Initiative, Global Security Initiative and the common shared future for mankind can and will hopefully make a breakthrough in Southeast Asia. The deeper meaning and significance of Wang Yi’s visit to Southeast Asia and the related good neighbourhood diplomacy have to be properly and objectively understood..."