ASEAN Secretary General Le Luong Minh recently told The Manila Times that China’s claim in South China Sea based on the nine-dash-line was illegal, and that the happenings in the South China Sea were further complicating the situation and impeding the development of the ASEAN community. His remarks were immediately criticized by China’s Foreign Ministry.

Le wears two hats, one as a senior Vietnamese diplomat and the other as ASEAN secretary general. It is not difficult to imagine what a Vietnamese diplomat might say about Vietnam’s maritime dispute with China (especially to a newspaper in Manila, which too has a dispute with Beijing). But what if he made the remark as ASEAN secretary general? If his remark represents the views of ASEAN, then it should be seen as a new and dangerous move.

China and ASEAN relations are not bad. China and ASEAN signed the Treaty of Amity and Cooperation in Southeast Asia in 2003. The first decade of this century was hailed as a golden decade for the two sides, and China is now ASEAN’s largest trading partner. But behind the glitter, there is the shadow of the South China Sea disputes. After all, China has disputes with four ASEAN member states.

So, when Le talks about the situation in the South China Sea and the ASEAN community, he apparently makes a link between the two. According to the 2002 China-ASEAN Declaration, the disputes in the South China Sea should be resolved by “sovereign states directly concerned”, that is, China, Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia and Brunei. If the disputes are taken as an issue between China and ASEAN, the only conclusion would be that ASEAN is being hijacked by some countries, such as Vietnam and the Philippines which are at the forefront of challenging China.

The question is: Could ASEAN be hijacked? The answer: It is not impossible. The Philippines is trying to move the international maritime tribunal against China. When Manila launched such a surprise attack on Beijing, it didn’t consult ASEAN. Although ASEAN knew fully well that such a move violates the 2002 China-ASEAN Declaration that “the parties concerned undertake to resolve their territorial and jurisdictional disputes through friendly consultations and negotiations”, ASEAN chose to remain silent.