ASEAN COMMUNITY OF ENTREPRENEURS
OPINION
Southeast Asian states have found themselves engaged by new proactive regional initiatives from major powers. The recently signed, but still to be ratified, Trans-Pacific Partnership( TPP) is one example of the initiative displayed by Washington. China’ s land-based“ Silk Road Economic Belt” and“ 21 st Century Maritime Silk Road”( One Belt, One Road) initiatives put on display Beijing’ s proactive engagement and growing confidence.
The TPP which is nearly twice the size of the EU Common Market in population and representing nearly 40 % of the world’ s economy, to their Northeast Asian counterparts – are generally more in need of the developmental assistance associated with China’ s initiatives. Geographic proximity also makes Southeast Asian states, especially the continental states closest to China’ s borders, more demographically and politically linked to China.
As for TPP, though it includes only four Southeast Asian states( Singapore, Brunei, Malaysia, and Vietnam), the US has actively engaged other states in hopes of convincing them to participate. In addition to diplomatic persuasion, the Obama administration has also worked with individual states to develop instances of“ regionalism”; however, as currently constituted, neither, in fact, is‘ regional’ in terms of more conventional usage or current practices of regionalism. Though linked to the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation( APEC), TPP is still an agreement comprising 12 states from North and South America, Northeast and Southeast Asia as well as Oceania.
Washington’ s general position has been that‘ regional cooperation’ should not proceed from any normative commitment to a preset idea of region, but instead from a set of common functional interests and agendas. This does not mean that TPP has not involved local attention promises to be the world’ s largest free trade area. Meanwhile, the One Belt One Road( OBOR) project promises to connect more than 60 emerging market countries and developing countries and a population of over four billion – a total worth of about US $ 21 trillion.
SOUTHEAST ASIA IN CHINA, AND US INTERESTS
In these initiatives, Southeast Asian states have been particular subjects of both Washington’ s and Beijing’ s attention. In the case of OBOR, Southeast Asian states – as opposed their governmental and regulatory capacities to pursue more extensive trade commitments as in the TPP.
For both China and the United States, Southeast Asia is important because it serves as the connective link between land and sea, as well as between the Pacific and Indian Oceans. Lastly, ASEAN states represent a large, collective, and symbolic Asian audience for their respective initiatives.
‘ REGIONALISM’
Both sets of initiatives are often conceptualised as‘ regional’ or as from Washington; rather, TPP may be better conceptualised in terms of individual, participating states united by a common agenda.
In this sense, TPP may be more multilateral than it is regional. In contrast, OBOR is more regional in its assumptions, starting points, and referents in the sense that it more directly engages and identifies regions and sub-regions already in practice. Moreover, the‘ regions’ involved are both sub-state and inter-state, both sub-regional and regional. On the other hand, China’ s regionalism is also offset by the considerable bilateralism that has typified its pursuit of OBOR in practice.
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ASEAN COMMUNITY OF ENTREPRENEURS | ISSUE 2: 2016