In search of a truly regional community

Slides
Photos

By Xu Changwen (China Daily)
Updated: 2009-10-28 08:04

Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama's vision of an East Asian community, which he has been putting forward ever since he took office, has attracted wide attention.

At the 4th East Asia Summit in Hua Hin, Thailand, over the weekend, leaders said regional cooperation will be built in the spirit of openness and tolerance, with respect for diversity.

Hatoyama proposed the idea at the Second China-Japan-Republic of Korea (ROK) Summit in Beijing on Oct 10, too, and said the first step toward building an East Asian community was to strengthen regional economic integration among the three countries.

In search of a truly regional community

Some East Asian scholars, however, have criticized Hatoyama's idea, saying it is another version of the "Great East Asia Co-prosperity Sphere", which Japan had propounded before World War II.

But the world has undergone radical changes since World War II, as have East Asian countries and peoples' thoughts and mindsets. Hence, we should not draw a parallel between Japan's "Great East Asia Co-prosperity Sphere" and Hatoyama's suggestion. It's a different matter that his concept needs to be analyzed further.

Today, no one country can dominate a regional or global organization, and without the active participation of all East Asian countries, Japan cannot succeed in building one.

Nearly 50 percent of Japan's foreign trade is dependent on East Asian markets, and hence Tokyo wants to deepen regional cooperation. Countries in the region, too, desire it because it would be in the interest of all the sides.

Globalization and regional integration are the two irreversible trends of our time. With the efforts of European countries for more than half a century, the European Union (EU) has gone through several stages of development. And it is still expanding with the aim of building a supranational community. The North American Free Trade Zone and East Asia regional cooperation are following the EU example.

The EU lesson shows that promoting regional integration and establishing a regional community cannot be achieved overnight. It has to be a long-term process of cooperation and coordination.

Coming back to the concept of an East Asian community, let's make it clear that it is not Japan's brainchild. China began advancing the process of East Asian integration at the beginning of this century. It signed a free trade agreement (FTA) with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in 2002 in order to establish a "China-ASEAN free trade area" by 2010. Such has been the pace of cooperation that the goal is likely to be reached next year.

Besides, the ROK signed an FTA agreement with ASEAN in 2007 and is seeking one with China. The moves are aimed at facilitating the formation of an East Asian community.

On the other hand, Japan is the last country in the region to sign an FTA with ASEAN. It did so only last year. So Japan's proposal to form an East Asian community only suggests it has rethought its policy on regional cooperation and wants to rejoin the efforts of its neighbors for mutual benefit.

Regional integration should, in essence, be defined geographically. East Asia covers Northeast Asia and Southeast Asia, so an East Asian community should include countries from the two regions. But when the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) was in power in Japan, it included Australia, New Zealand and India (a South Asian country) into such a community, advocating a "10+6" grouping. Needless to say it was not a truly East Asia community.

After Hatoyama put forward his regional integration proposal at the UN General Assembly, the US opposed it immediately, forcing Japanese officials to include the Americans in an East Asian community. This again shows Japan's concept has already gone beyond a genuine regional community.

China and the ROK both support East Asian regional integration, which should be based on ASEAN+3 (China, Japan and the ROK) cooperation.

This is not to say that China and the ROK want to prevent other countries or regions from helping to build an East Asian community. The path of integration of the EU and North America shows that depending on a few neighboring countries to initiate regional cooperation will help its organization and development. In the initial stages of regional integration, more members will have divergence of views and it will be more difficult to reach a consensus on an issue, which in turn can prevent further cooperation.

So it makes more sense for just a few friendly countries to form a regional community and then admit new members to expand it gradually.

While promoting regional integration, each country has to consider the interests of the others in the formation. Of course, a country has to first look at its own interest, but that should not harm those of the others, or else it would be impossible to deepen and expand cooperation.

As major regional players, China, Japan and the ROK should further the cause of East Asian integration. And strengthening cooperation among them is one of the most important steps toward that.

The author is a researcher at research institute of the Ministry of Commerce.

(China Daily 10/28/2009 page9)