Wang Yi Meets ASEAN Secretary-General Kao Kim Hourn in Beijing

The framing is deliberately institutional: Beijing is signaling continuity with ASEAN as a bloc rather than with individual member states, which matters in a region where bilateral disputes often complicate the multilateral track. The emphasis on ASEAN unity and community building is the tell — support for centralness is cheap to declare and harder to operationalize when members diverge. Whether the anniversary markers translate into concrete deliverables, or remain commemorative, is the open question worth watching.