East Asian Cooperation And China's Soft Power

China cannot develop independently without East Asia, and China's development has brought it opportunities. In East Asia, there are two kinds of trends that attract worldwide attention. One is the process of East Asian Cooperation and the other, China's increasing power and influence. The purpose of this dissertation is to discuss the relationship between China's soft power and East Asian Cooperation. It argues that there is reciprocity between them: China's soft power could play an active role in East Asian Cooperation and it could also be improved by promoting East Asian Cooperation. The paper focuses on how China's soft power plays a role in East Asian Cooperation.The introduction presents the question and defines two groups of core concepts: soft power & China's soft power, regionalism & East Asian Regionalism(East Asian Cooperation). Then, the paper provides a comprehensive literature summary on soft power and East Asian Cooperation in academic cycles at home and aboard and interprets the research methodology of the paper.Chapter one establishes the theoretical hypothesis and analytical framework, indicating the interaction between soft power and regionalism (regional cooperation), and then arguing that the role of soft power in regional cooperation depending on three variables: regional shared knowledge, institutional arrangement and regional public goods.Chapter two explores the particularity and problems of East Asian Cooperation, viewing that the weak regional identity, the lack of integrative regional institutions and, the underprovision of regional public goods are the major challenges facing East Asia. However, these challenges provide China opportunities to bring its soft power into full play.Chapter three, four and five are empirical analyses of the relationship between China's soft power and the construction of East Asian shared knowledge, institutional arrangement and the provision of regional public goods. This part examines the role of China's soft power play in East Asia Cooperation, exploring the interaction between them, and trying to find a way to improve China's soft power. Chapter three discusses the contribution that China's soft power has made and supposed to make in the construction of regional shared knowledge. Chapter four surveys China's role to build regional institutions. Chapter five examines regional public goods provided by China. This part tries to assume that if China could make contributions in these aspects, it would play an active role in the promotion of East Asian Cooperation, and meanwhile, China's soft power itself will be improved accordingly. Chapter six explores the implication of the image-building of a responsible regional power to China's soft power and East Asian Cooperation.The conclusion makes a summary of the paper and a further thinking on China's role in East Asian Cooperation.