East Asian Community Building And China Strategy

The Community Theory is one of the most important theories in international politics. Under a state of anarchy of international society, the core element of the community's construction is the mutual regulations, system construction and common interest expansion which are stressed by the community and provide theoretical evidence for the promotion to the construction of the community. Most of people consider that integration processes can only be realized in those areas with similar economic development, mutual value systems or domination of a powerful strength. However, the construction of the East Asian community became outstanding among all the communities'constructions in the world. Therefore, under the guide of the Community Theory, the construction of the East Asian community begins its long and strenuous way.After the end of Cold War, because the tendency of regional integration becomes more and more obvious under the influence of globalization, European and North America have began to step into the rail of integration. East Asian, as the most vigorous area of world economy, has neither an existent systematical foundation like EU (European Union), nor clear power dominance like North America, which put a great pressure on East Asian whose integration process obviously lag. In 1997, the Asian financial crisis provided an opportunity for the integration of East Asian. The phenomenon of the crisis was a disaster in finance, but, actually, the nature of it was a crisis caused by the side-efforts of economic globalization and regional integration. From then on, the East Asian countries started to think about the reasons, even still in a serious crisis; they gradually made a sense of the paramount importance of area cooperation and began to speed their process of cooperation in areas. In recent years, the construction of East Asian community has been a focus of all sides, and nations of East Asian have an increasing expectation on it, especially, after the Japan prime minister Hatoyama yukio ran in office, he firstly put forward to a visualization of a Japan model East Asian community (exclusive America) which gave rise to strong echo in international society. In November, 2001, East Asian Vision Group Report was passed on the fifth meeting between East Asian Union and the leaders of China, Japan, and Korea; on the meeting, the leaders discussed the East Asian community, and it was the first time this community was completely and systematically explained in a formal way. East Asian Community gradually became a commonsense of East Asian nations. The most dynamic market as East Asian is in world economy, the process of integration is struggling its way to make progress; compared to the soundly mechanized EU and the rapidly developed FATT (Free Trade Area of Americas), East Asian is clearly lagging behind them. With the raise of China's national power, its influence on East Asian areas is highlighted day by day, and China's stress on Peaceful Development and the diplomatic policies- "Building friendship and partnership with neighboring countries" and Good-neighborliness, Fit the neighbor and Rich the neighbor, makes the neighbor countries change their attitudes to China, although there are still some doubts in them. During the past two crises, China made a great contribution to the economy recovery of East Asian and at the same time earned more credibility and respect from all East Asian nations, which promoted the process of integration for East Asian without doubt. Besides, Japan's recovery from the crises and building of a political power also cannot be reached without the support of the other East Asian countries. Now, Japan's diplomatic policies are slowly converting from "off Asian into European" into "off United states into Asian", and in addition to the far-reaching effect of Confucianism, the common recognition and identification are formed, all these factors are conducive to the construction of East Asian Community, and these active elements become a momentum of its progress. Nonetheless, nothing goes smoothly without any difficulties on the way, there is still a long way to go for the construction of East Asian Community. America is influential in East Asian regions, through building up some military unions and putting stress on mechanisms, she makes some East Asian nations tightly stick to her. But America doesn't opposite East Asian Community with a statement; neither expresses support in public; because it's related to the America's Asian strategy. Whether there will be a powerful country that can face the challenge becomes the key point of America's support of East Asian Community construction or not. As ASEAN (the Association of Southeast Asian Nations) is the dominator, the organization is merely loosely made up of some small countries that have limits in mediating the divergences among East Asian big countries and its ability falls short of its wishes.China and Korea are mighty countries in East Asian; reasonably, they should become the main strength of driving the process of East Asian Community, however, mutual political trust lack, historical and present interest entanglement exist between them, therefore, all these factors put a great barrier on the construction of East Asian Community.China is a leading power in East Asian; to some degree, China's attitudes determine the process of East Asian Community construction. Faced with the evolutionary momentum of East Asian Community, China should hold high political eyesight in dealing with the relationships with ASEAN, America, Korea and Japan, and can cope with strategies, thus showing that China is a responsible and constructive powerful country in the construction of East Asian Community.This paper begins with the connotation of The Community Theory. By analysis of the background of East Asian Community construction, the paper states an overall view of the building process of East Asian Community, and respectively, discusses the advantages and disadvantages of the construction, so that we can make a predicate for the prospect of East Asian Community construction. As one part of East Asian, China is going to overcome the realistic barriers, consider the situations and size up the opportunities, on the basis of the strategic goal of peaceful rise, to take an active and comprehensive strategy to reach the goal of constructing East Asian Community.