RCEP And The Strategic Choice Of China 's Open Regionalism

East Asian regionalism is experiencing a revolutionary development. East Asiancountries are entering into a new era of “open regionalism” that regionalization is firstbased on the region--east Asia, then open to the world. East Asian open regionalismcan be traced back to the establishment of the “ASEAN+3” cooperation. As a newform of regionalization, open regionalism integrates both southeast Asia and northeastAsia, and actors form other region are welcomed to the process of east Asiaregionalization. Open regionalism is not only a resurgence of the traditionalregionalism, but also a transcendence of the new regionalism. As a paradigm of openregionalism, RCEP was first proposed by ASEAN in2011. It provides Asian countriesan opportunity to face the challenge from other regions as a whole. Besides, RCEPcan solve the“spaghetti bowl effect”in east Asia, and can also accelerate the pace ofeast Asia regionalization.China is also facing a rapid-changing neighboring environment. The neighboringcountries have big concerns about China regarding to its rapid growth. TPP has alsoposed a major challenge to China. Therefore, it is highly necessary for China toparticipate in the process of east Asia regionalization. RCEP provides China a way todeeply integrate into east Asia regionalization. China should take this favorablechance to achieve its development goals by promoting its regional strategy under theguidance of open regionalism.