Developments of China’s Changing Role in East Asian Regionalism

Abstract

Exuding the characteristic of diversity in culture, ethnicity, politics and economics, East Asia remains an area where broad regionalist sentiment has yet to take its hold. Currently, regionalism in the area can be understood as under three contending forces, China, Japan and ASEAN, with the APEC framework in excess of the region suggested as being possibly the most hopeful construct in advancing regionalism among Asian countries. This author argues otherwise. Similar to NATO, member countries still look towards the US to fill the role of an honest broker for dispute settlement despite the contending fact that some Asian members, like their European counterparts, would enjoy a more closed setting isolated from US influence. With China playing a bigger role on the international stage due to its increased economic and political power, a developing trend seems to be the gravitation of Asian members towards a greater leadership role for China in the region. Generally, Asia is still watchful over the revival of Japanese militarism, thus reducing the possibility of strong regionalism built around Japan. On the other hand, ASEAN serves more as a geographically limited multilateral economic interface rather than a framework that provides for East Asia in its entirety. These developments hint at the possibility of regionalism centered upon Chinese leadership.