The South China Sea disputes have severely challenged Asean. At the Asean-China meeting held in Kunming (昆明) in June 2016, a senior Chinese official, sitting beside Foreign Minister Wang Yi (王毅), bluntly told Asean foreign ministers that, as far as China was concerned, Asean (the Association of Southeast Asian Nations) was not central to the issue.
In 2012, the 45th Asean Ministerial Meeting, under Cambodia’s chairmanship, failed to issue a joint statement for the first time in Asean’s history because Cambodia, at China’s behest, blocked consensus on the South China Sea. Afterwards, Cambodia’s Prime Minister Hun Sen said it had been a “strategic choice”.

http://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/2009574/lesson-hong-kong-must-learn-south-china-sea