ASEAN and Rising China Looking for Win-win Solution

The Jakarta Post

10 October 2016

Ong Keng Yong

The international order is undergoing structural change, not just from the rise of emerging economies, but from the way technologies, social and mobile are revolutionizing the way information flows within and between societies.

We live at a turning point in history, full of promise but also of danger. We are seeing a resurgence of hard nationalism, a backlash against the globalization and the liberal global order.

Voters everywhere are confounding all previous expectations in voting against existing institutions and dominant elites. Social media has also become a factor in international relations.

It is in this context that the countries of ASEAN face a rising China. China’s rise is the biggest geopolitical phenomenon of our time. Since the start of Chinese reforms 35 years ago, China has moved from the periphery to the center of the global economy. Its economy is 60 times larger than it was in 1980. It is the largest trading partner of every country in ASEAN.

… The writer is former secretary-general of ASEAN and now at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS), NTU, in Singapore.

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