THE RISE OF CHINA AND THE CHANGING EAST ASIAN ORDER

2002–2004

The prospect of a new, rapidly rising China poses both opportunities and challenges for the task of regional community building in Asia Pacific. China’s rise has been met with ambivalent reactions from its neighboring countries in a region that is still struggling to establish a viable arrangement for regional governance that will contribute to economic development and political and security stability. With a view to building the Asia Pacific regional community, what is clearly needed for the establishment of a viable system of governance in the region is to engage in sustained joint intellectual efforts to develop a better understanding of these opportunities and challenges.

Under the joint leadership of three senior intellectual leaders in the region—Wang Jisi, director of American Studies, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Ryosei Kokubun, Professor of Keio University, and Jusuf Wanandi of CSIS Jakarta—a major research project was organized in 2002 to study the opportunities and challenges that the rise of China as a regional power presents for the task of regional community-building. The joint task force, part of the Asia Pacific Agenda Project (APAP), consisted of emerging intellectual leaders from China, Japan, Korea, and several ASEAN countries. The participants discussed their preliminary paper drafts in Singapore on November 24–25, 2002, and then came together at the 8th APAP Forum in Kunming, China, on March 21–23, 2003, to present the main themes of their research. Their papers were compiled as The Rise of China and the Changing East Asian Order, published in 2004.

PARTICIPANTS

GREG AUSTIN, Visiting Senior Research Fellow, European Institute for Asian Studies, Brussels

CHIA SIOW YUE, Senior Research Fellow, Singapore Institute of International Affairs; Regional Coordinator, East Asian Development Network (EADN)

SUNG-HEE JWA, President, Korea Economic Research Institute

RYOSEI KOKUBUN, Director, Center for Area Studies, Keio University

GEUN LEE, Assistant Professor, School of International and Area Studies, Seoul National University

MEN HONGHUA, Assistant Professor, Institute of International Strategy Studies, Central Party School, China

NOEL MORADA, Executive Director, Institute for Strategic and Development Studies, Philippines

NI FENG, Associate Professor, Institute of American Studies, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences

HIDEO OHASHI, Professor, Department of Economics, Senshu University

MARI PANGESTU, Former Executive Director, Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), Indonesia

AKIO TAKAHARA, Professor, Department of Politics, Rikkyo University

JUSUF WANANDI, Co-Founder and Member of the Board of Trustees, Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), Indonesia

WANG GUNGWU, Director, East Asian Institute, Singapore

WANG JISI, Director, Institute of American Studies, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences

WANG RONGJUN, Research Associate, Institute of American Studies, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences

YANG GUANGBIN, Associate Professor, School of International Studies, Renmin University