The 27th Policy Plenary Meeting on“The Trends of EAS Countries and theRelationship between APT and EAS”
July 23, 2008
The 27th Policy Plenary Meeting of the Council on East Asian Community (CEAC)
was held on July 23 at the conference room of the Japan Forum on International Relations
to discuss ʺThe Trends of EAS Countries and the Relationship between APT and EASʺ. Prof.
SOEYA Yoshihide, Member of CEAC and Professor of Keio University, made a keynotereport, which was followed by an active exchange of views among Members of CEAC.
Prof. SOEYA stated, ʺWe are now at the stage of discussing an East Asian
Community by proposing each other a vision of desirable regional order in East Asia. Itshould not be seen from the viewpoint of whether it can be realized. It can be understoodas a diplomatic road map when we think about how to get close to an appropriate pictureof East Asia. What kind of regional order is desirable for Japan can be found in a policy
speech by former Prime Minister Koizumi in Singapore in 2002. While China was includedin that vision, it also contained Australia and New Zealand, thereby presenting a different
picture from the regional order in East Asia which has centered on China. In that sense, itcertainly has an aspect of competing with China. Both Australia and New Zealand areimportant partners for Japan because they share universal values. It also aimed at securing
the relationship with the United States. However, it should be noted that a competition
with China does not mean a geopolitical clash. The trend from peaceful rise strategy toharmonious diplomacy in China has been developed while the Chinese have conducted ascrupulous self‐examination of serious domestic problems and looked for the measures tobe taken. Domestic issues are of special importance and nationalism is aroused through acomplex mixture of rapid economic growth and victim consciousness held since Opium
War. When China seeks a desirable regional order, the United States would be regarded as
negative although it does not mean that China would exclude and have a conflict with theUnited States. On the other hand, the United Stated has started to see China as a
ʺstakeholderʺ while both ʺcontainmentʺ policy and ʺengagementʺ policy are all but gone.
But China has thought that the concept of ʺstakeholderʺ might be similar to ʺengagementʺpolicy. China has been now looking for a new principle which can be applied to an East
Asian regional order instead of ʺWashington Consensusʺ and trying to awake sympathy inASEAN. The United States has now recognized that it can co‐exist with China although theaspect of strategic competition does not disappear. The United States has been recently
inclined to multilateralism and seeking ʺdouble‐hedgingʺ by admitting a central role of
China while putting China under the framework of multilateralism. If the United States
attach more importance to multilateralism, it might be more seriously involved in an East
Asian Community. The role of the United States which China thinks of as desirable isdifferent from what Japan regards as desirable. Therefore Japan should deliver a clearer
message to the world and make an effort to gain support from ASEAN, Australia and so on.
In that sense, Japan should re‐construct its strategy of East Asia Summit (EAS). For such apurpose, it is important for us to organically combine a vision and functional approach. A
strategy for the diplomacy in East Asia cannot be realized without simultaneously
pursuing a strategy towards China and that towards the United States. Although
ASEAN+3 (APT) used to play a central role rather than EAS, both are now equally treated.
The consensus is that we should stop arguing which one is more important than the other.
In response to the above report and comment, 17 member of CEAC joined in an
active exchange of views on the topic.