Japanese PM Hatoyama and Chinese President Hu Jintao
SE Asia: The NY Times has an article discussing East and Southeast Asian economic integration. Thai prime minister, Abhisit Vejjajiva, believes that the regions should be looking for a new growth model, one that is less reliant on the consumption of Western nations. This would mean increasing domestic demand and increasing aid between Asian nations. Both Japan and China have put forth vague regional economic bloc outlines, that Japan has compared to the European Union, however; it is doubtful that there would be open borders, easy movement of labor, common security police, or a binding extra-national political authority.
One key point of contention is the role of the U.S. For obvious reasons, China does not want U.S. involvement. Japan, on the other hand, would like U.S. involvement or at least are paying lip service to American concerns. As this blog has discussed before, the U.S. squashed an Asian forum in the past due to the fact it felt it would be excluded, but eventually it morphed and resurfaced at ASEAN+3. In the end, it is doubtful that the U.S. will be sidelined as many nations in the region want a stronger U.S. presence to counter China’s growing power. Japan might be a useful proxy for America interests in this regard. As the Thai PM said in the article, ASEAN sees itself as a abalancer of great power politics in the region – Japan and US vs. China – let the games began.
