Pang Zhongying: Regionalism Is the Outlet of East Asia Cooperation

 The order of Asia in thefuture must be a regionalism arrangement.

Reporter: ChenXialu

Reporter: You’ve mentioned in your speech in the sub-forum that East Asia cooperation isnot just about the issue of theUnited States, but more about realizing internalconflicts. What do you mean by that?

PangZhongying: We should not emphasize the cause of theUnited Stateswhile facingeverything; theUSdoesinfluence, because what they want is not cooperation ofEast Asiabut of transpacific area, namely Asia-Pacific cooperation. Thereis an easy solution forChina;we, on one hand, need to emphasize the necessity of regional cooperation andEast Asiacooperation. We may admit that theUSis apacific country, but it’s absolutely not an Asia-Pacific country. As forAsia-Pacific countries, it refers to those in the west of the region (Asia). We cannot make the concessions just as we cannotregard theUSto be a European country. TheUSis not among the European Union, so similarly, why should it be consideredwhile speaking of theEast Asiacooperation? TheEast Asia Summit invites the US, Japan invites the US and South Korea invitesthe US; that means the major obstacle of East Asia cooperation is from inside. Whydo these countries invite theUS?It’s mainly for balancing offChina.In this situation, carrying outEast Asiaregionalism is impossible.

Doctrineis supreme. It’s a theory guiding our actions and our way to the safety of oursocial and political system. Nationalism is one type and regionalism is anotherwhen thinking aboutEast Asiacooperation. Wecannot define regionalism with nationalism, neither with imperialism since theyare conflicting with each other. In a word, if every part really wants tocooperate, they should stop blaming theUS,saying that it’s theUSthatdestroy the East Asia cooperation, and find internal reasons withinEast Asiainstead. Like the cooperation betweenFranceandGermany,the distance fromBerlintoParisis absolutely much longer comparing to that fromWashingtonto either of the two cities.Despite a long conflict period between the two countries, they come together atlast. Back toChinaandJapan, the distance betweenBeijingorShanghaiandTokyois short, but what we see isJapanis the first East Asian alliance of US and they are closer to each other. TheSino-Japan relations are so complicated and confronting so many difficultiesthese days. We are geographically close, but psychologically separated greatly.

As a result, it’s before the time right now talking aboutregionalism. However, regionalism is the only way to solve the problems inAsia. People have forgotten regionalism and wouldprobably stay the same in future. But regionalism needs to come back in thefuture and the problems should be solved within a regional framework.    The experience from Europe, even Africa, canbe borrowed becauseAfricais not only acontinent but all countries there share common characters and common future.East Asiais the same as well. Voices have been raisedrecently thatChinais trying to restore the tribute system. However in the future, we would not goback to the China-centered tribute system or the Japanese Great East Asia Co-prosperitySphere, and not keep the current US-centered imperial liberal regime, butformulate a regionalism arrangement like what inEurope– an equitable order in its true sense. Irelandand even smaller countries are in the European Union, which solves smallcountries’ problems and wipes out their worries about big powers. The issue ofChina’srising which people fear could be dealt with in this way. The order ofAsiain the future must be a regionalism arrangement.

Now every part is unwilling to pursue regionalism due to the US andvarious internal reasons. In those days, Hu Shi said people should discuss lesson doctrines but more on issues. Nowadays it’s just the opposite and moredoctrines are welcomed inEast Asiaas well asin this conference. So I thinkChina’saction in the future is to pushEast Asiatothe direction of regionalism, to ensure that countries are equal no matter howbig they are; regionalism could indeed realize the equality of large and smallcountries. Why have 27 European countries joined the EU? EU is attractive tolarge countries, but more to small ones. Some small European countries putforward a slogan called “Return to Europe” after the collapse of Soviet Union;the “Europe” here refers to the European Unionthen. No one is interested in the Japanese militarism Great East Asia Co-prosperitySphere; US-centered liberal regime is not suitable either. We should center ontheAsia.

Therefore, I think the order of East Asia in the future is not Great East Asia Co-prosperitySphere or US-centered but a regionalism arrangement. Butjust owing to the so-called return of US toAsia,regionalism is neglected. That’s the problem.

Reporter: Thetheme of this Shanghai Forum is the strategy for the next decade. How do youthink ofChina’sfuture development?

PangZhongying: China’s next decade is promising. Consideringthe past ten or twenty or even thirty years, great changes happened in eachstratum. This meansChinahas made tremendous achievements. Certainly huge problems come along, but it’son balance positive. This is why foreigners are afraid ofChina’s rising. We need to maintainour positive impetus for the next decade, not only the impetus of developmentbut of making achievements. If we can on one side keep this positive impetusand at least control manage and govern some pointed, complicated, difficultissues effectively on the other, weChinawould have a promising futurein the coming decade.

The west, including Europe and US, is at a time of crisis while theinfluence of Soviet Union’s collapse is not over yet to Russia. So we need tokeep our impetus and solve our problems properly. The “problems” here could beperceived generally as the reform of our political system, imbalances betweenour economy and society, etc. IfChinacould not settle these problems, our efforts and achievements of the reform andopen to the outside world, even those forChina’s rising in the past 100years might be digested gradually. The west had made large progress inRenaissance and Industrial Revolution during last centuries, but some say theyare declining and suffering crisis. TakeGreeceas example. The westerncivilization is traceable toGreecewhile it could be described as a tragedy there now. But ifChinawould keep its impetus andsolve the problems including various macroscopic ones as I have said, it willgo far then. Surely it’s conditional; I’m not saying our future is definitelybright. These conditions must be met and the problems need to be solved.

Introduction:

Pang Zhongying is a famous Chinese scholaron international politics in the present age. He works forSchoolofInternational Relations, People’sUniversityofChina, as a professorand doctorial supervisor.