Huang said the message seemed to contain three parts. The first was China wants to work with its neighbors to promote regional development. "China sees itself and its neighbors as depending on each other for shared fortunes, good or bad," he said.

The second part was China wants to be a power making peace instead of instability in the region, and China would like to see itself and its neighbors working together, as partners on an equal footing, to safeguard stability, he said.

Huang said it was also clear China wants to see all the parties cooperating with one another for the benefit of the region, and that it does not want to see any major powers from outside the region encouraging trouble-making for their perceived interests on certain disputed issues.

"China does not want to see countries that are not directly involved make trouble in the region by encouraging louder voices on the disputes, and it does not want to see its Southeast Asian neighbors used by such external powers," Huang said.

SHARED SECURITY

The idea of shared security and prosperity was key, because it showed China's understanding by calling for concerted efforts by its neighbors to safeguard regional stability, Huang said. It implies respect for each other as equal partners in the pursuit of shared prosperity, he said.

Xi said: "We should respect each other's right to independently choose their own social system and development path, as well as each other's efforts to explore and pursue economic and social development and improve people's lives."

Chinese Premier Li Keqiang built on Xi's effort with a subsequent tour to Brunei for the East Asia summit before traveling to Thailand and Vietnam.

In Brunei, Li reaffirmed a pledge to complete negotiations by 2015 on the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), a free trade agreement involving ASEAN and six of its trade partners.

During his visit to Southeast Asia, he emphasized China's growth brought benefit to its neighbors and made commitments covering such areas as investment, energy, agriculture, infrastructure and maritime cooperation, calling for efforts to "plant more flowers, not thorns."

Chinese leaders did not dodge the South China Sea issue, where there are differences, but laid out principles to manage the disputes and expressed China's willingness to join talks on a code of conduct.

"The South China Sea issue is only a small part of the overall relations between China and some of its neighboring countries. It should not be a barrier to China's pursuit of common development with ASEAN on the whole," said Chen Youjun, a research fellow at the Shanghai Institutes for International Studies.

Chinese Vice Premier Zhang Gaoli, also a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, followed up with a visit to Singapore, which is now the third largest source of foreign direct investment for the Chinese mainland.

The island city state of 5.4 million people is also the mainland's second largest trading partner and third largest export market within the ASEAN countries.