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East Asian Cooperation And Integration: Where To Go?

East Asia cooperation and integration, currently 10 plus 3, namely 10 ASEAN countries plus China, Japan and the Republic of Korea (ROK), has received increasing attention not just in East Asian region, but also in other parts of the world. The formal process only started from 1997, notable achievements have been made: an institutional framework for regional cooperation has been setup through annual leaders’ meeting, ministers’ meeting and senior officials meeting; real progress in financial cooperation by Chiang Mai Initiative; preferential trade arrangements (PTA), like AFTA, China-ASEAN FTA initiative, Japan-Singapore (closer economic partnership (CEP), as well as sub-regional development projects.
　　However, the progress of East Asian cooperation is still considered to be limited. The real question is: how far it can go and what of kind model it will follow?
　　
From Divide to Convergence
　　
　　From historical perspective, there was no a unilaterally accepted culture or civilization for Asian region after the collapse of “Middle kingdom order” as early as in 14thcentury. The later colonization of Southeast region and the wars in the Northeast region made East Asia in a long disorder. Starting from early 20thcentury, Japan as a rising power intended to create its own order under so called “Great East Asian commonwealth” by force, but failed. The end of World War II again made the East Asian region divided by two separated blocs and markets. China plaid a unique role in breaking this regional division when it decided to get away from Soviet bloc and to conduct reform of its economic system and open to the West in late 1970s. In a gradual transition, East Asian division has been mostly closed up due to the end of the Cold War and also regional economic dynamism and close economic interconnection.
　　Economic convergence has been emerged mainly by a “flying geese model” lead by Japan and followed by “four dragons” (ROK, Singapore, Hong Kong, Taiwan), as well as...