| Since 1990s,especially after entering the 21st century,with the steady improvement of comprehensive strength and international status of China,the relationship between China and international cooperation mechanisms have been gradually changing from participation and integration to shaping and leading.The "China’s initiative" and "China’s solution" have been increasingly highlighted in global and regional cooperation.The Lancang-Mekong Cooperation(LMC)which is presenting a good development trend,is one of the new sub-regional cooperation mechanisms initiated and led by China.However,as "a new comer"of sub-regional cooperation mechanisms,the Lancang-Mekong Cooperation is facing academic theory and practical aspects problems in terms of dealinig with and coordinating the relationship with existing mechanisms in the subregion,especially the relationship with the Greater Mekong Subregion Economic Cooperation(GMS).In the year of 1992,China and Mekong River countries jointly participated in the Greater Mekong Subregion Economic Cooperation under the initiative of the Asian Development Bank.The Greater Mekong Subregion Economic Cooperation has become the earliest,the most mature and influential cooperation platform among the six countries after over 20 years’development.In the year of 2014,under the new situation of international and regional development,the construction of new mechanism for sub-regional cooperation has been proposed and led by China.In November of 2015,the first Lancang-Mekong Cooperation foreign ministers’ meeting owas held.the first Lancang-Mekong Cooperation leaders’ meeting was held smoothly in march of 2016.Owing to the joint efforts of all the parties,Lancang-Mekong Cooperation has become a vital platform of the "Belt and Road" initiative which is jointly built through consultation.With the deepen of sub-regional cooperation,China has changed its rolefrom a participant in the international mechanism to an advocate and a leader,and the experience of this changing process is worth to be discussed and summarized.In the other hand,China has put itselfinto the constantly nested and overlapped multilateral regional mechanisms.The complexity of these mechanisms is increasingly becoming the structural factor that China must consider when formulating its policies.How to properly handle the relationship between new and old mechanisms has become a realistic difficulty.Therefore,the comparative study about GMS and LMC is required,and in the perspective of academic theoretical part,this study is benefit for grasping the development trend of sub-regional cooperation and providing more reliable factual basis for new theoretical breakthrough;in the perspective of practice,the comparative study can provide a good sample for China to deal with the complicated problems in international mechanism.Firstly,this paper clarifies the basic concepts regarding sub-regional cooperation,and then explores the internal relation between sub-regional economic cooperation and sub-regional cooperation.By combining the theories of regionalism,functionalism and regional international public goods and so on,the comparative analysis framework between the sub-regional cooperation mechanisms has been proposed,that is,the vertical historical comparison and the comparison of similar elements among the horizontal mechanisms.Secondly,this framework is applied to compare the GMS and LMC,and then the evolution development trend of sub-regional cooperation is explored.Vertically,the comparison respective historical background,development process,main achievements as well as major difficulties of the GMS and the LMC are compared,and the breakthrough and development of the latter is revealed.Horizontally,this paper compares GMS and LMC in the items of cooperation fields,mechanism construction and cooperation dominating power and so on,then comprehensively grasps the advantages of Lancang River-Mekong cooperation in cooperation areas and cooperation dominating power and other aspects,at the same time,it also accurately analyzes its relative deficiencies in mechanism construction.On this basis,this paper analyzes the internal relations of the two mechanisms from theory and practice perspectives,and points out that the two mechanisms could come to a coordinated development and jointly promote the sub-regional prosperity and stability.Thirdly,this paper explores the development process from GMS to LMC and its enlightenment for China’s participation in sub-regional cooperation in the new era.The process from the Greater Mekong sub-regional economic cooperation’s maturity development to the Lancang-Mekong cooperation’s creation and promotion reflects the cooperation between China and the Mekong river countries has come to deeply integrated phase.This process provides a theoretical and experience sample to China to lead and deepen the sub-regional cooperation in China’s new era of neighboring diplomacy,and also provide a sample to China to deal with the existing mechanisms and the creation of mechanisms.Through the above research,this paper argues that,firstly,the sub-regional cooperation can be divided into "low-level sub-regional cooperation" and "high-level sub-regional cooperation".Comparing with "low-level" sub-regional cooperation,the improvement and upgrading of cooperation have been emphasized by "High-level" sub-regional cooperation.It mainly means that the previous cooperation methods,fields and mechanisms could not be well adapted to the new development situation.Therefore,it is necessary to promote the adjustment and deepening of cooperation through collective actions.It is also a process along with gradual upgraded cooperation demands,continuous expand cooperation areas and unceasing evolved cooperation mechanisms.Secondly,the establishment of LMC just conforms to the development trend of Lan-cang Mekong subregion "high-level" cooperation,while the establishment of LMC is not a "starting afresh",although LMC is expected to become the "upgraded version" of the GMS,it takes time for LMC to surpass the GMS comprehensively.These two mechanisms(LMC and the GMS)are bound to co-exist for a long time during the subregion development process,Whether the cost of participation of all parties could be reduced,uncertainty in cooperation could be reduced,resource utilization rate could be improved,and the vitality and influence of the mechanism could be further enhanced depends on the competition and cooperation relationship between two mechanisms could be properly dealt with and the development of two mechanisms could be coordinated.Thirdly,the mechanisms in China’s surrounding region are complicate,and China’s own interests are closely related to the construction of these regional mechanisms,hence China should make its own contribution to promote regional deep integration.It should be accurately understand that the relationship between new established mechanism with exiting mechanism is not a"zero-sum" relationship,it is a relationship which combined with competition and cooperation.These two mechanisms need to be adjusted from the competition perspective,whereas their common aspect provide a space to coordinated development.The new sub-regional cooperation advocated by China adheres to the basic principles of coordinated development,openness and inclusiveness throughout the concept design and mechanism arrangement.The creation of mechanism is a supplement to the existing sub-regional cooperation framework,rather than a substitute,which fully reflects the Chinese "harmony in diversity" idea. |
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