China and the East Asian Summit: More Discord than Accord
Abstract
The recent East Asian Summit (EAS) was hyped as a precursor to a larger East Asian Community (EAC), something in the mold of an Asian version of the European Union. Instead, the first EAS brought historic strategic rivalries and conflicting geopolitical interests of the major powers into sharp relief. This paper examines China's stance toward the EAS, providing insights into Beijing's insecurities regarding the gathering momentum for a broader EAC that could shift power alignments within Asia. Membership remains a contentious issue. Wary of India, Australia and Japan, China proposed on the eve of the summit that the existing ASEAN Plus Three (APT: 10 Association of Southeast Asian Nations plus China, South Korea and Japan), and not the new 16-member East Asia Summit, control the formation of any EAC-building exercise. This proposal to divide EAS into two blocs the core states with China as the dominant APT player, and the peripheral states with India, Australia and New Zealand led to a major rift. Although China won a partial victory when it was announced that APT would be a vehicle for realizing the dreams of forming the East Asian Community, Beijing was disappointed with the final decision to make ASEAN the hub of the EAS by holding all future summits alongside the ASEAN Summit and in Southeast Asian countries only. In the absence of a genuine thaw in Sino-Japanese and Sino-Indian relations or great power cooperation, the EAC is unlikely to take off because multilateralism is a multi-player game. At best, the EAS will be just another talk shop like the APEC or the ARF where leaders meet and declarations are made, but little community building is achieved.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Feb 01, 2006
- Accession Number
- ADA493763
Entities
People
- Mohan Malik
Organizations
- Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies