East Asian Economic Integration Process And China’s Strategic Choice

Recently, WTO-led globalization is struggling due to the impasse in the Doha Round negotiations, and the regional economic integration has become an important measure for many countries (regions) to promote economic development. As the third largest economic growth pole in world, the regional economic cooperation in East Asia is also brewing a new pattern because of the TPP and the RCEP being proposed. Thus, how will the RCEP’s propulsion and the TPP’s expansion affect the regional economic cooperation in East Asia? What are the effects of them on China, an important power in East Asia, and how can it deal with them?Based on the new liberal institutionalism theory and the new regionalism theory, this paper analyzes the development and the new trend of East Asian integration comprehensively. Through analyzing the competition and cooperation relationship between RCEP and TPP, we concludes that RCEP and TPP provides a feasible integration path to achieve the regional economic integration in East Asia, namely the combination of RCEP and the TPP will accelerate the regional economic integration in East Asia. Then, the RCEP and TPP’s impacts on China from political and economic aspects are discussed in this paper. Politically, the US’s strategy of back-to-Asia-Pacific will make the contest for a dominant position in East Asia more fiercely, while the RCEP will be good for China to maintain its dominant influence in the regional economic cooperation. At the same time, the US’s strategy in Asia also makes China’s original stable surrounding situation become increasingly tense and the territorial waters or territorial disputes between China and other East Asian countries, such as the Huangyan island event with Philippines and the South China sea dispute with Vietnam, are arising. While the RCEP will provide a platform for China to exchange economic benefit with the political compromise, which is of great significance to ease the tension in China’s surrounding. Economically, the TPP has caused a certain negative effect on China’s trade. But if the RCEP is finally reached, it will generate great trade creation effect among its members, and contribute to promoting China’s economic development, which was further proved by the result of economic welfare analysis. If the RCEP and the TPP are effectively implemented, the welfare revenue generated by the RCEP to China will cover the loss of economic welfare caused by the TPP. However, the largest welfare effect China will get is to join FTAAP. Therefore, China should promote the FTAAP actively as its final goal instead of its East Aisa strategic vision confined to attending to RCEP or TPP.