REGIONALLY MADE: Exhibitors from Thailand show their handicrafts at a trade fair in Xishuangbanna in southwest China's Yunnan Province on April 13 (LIN YIGUANG)

ASEAN is the initiator and leader of East Asian cooperation. However, its primary goal is to create a favorable environment for the further development of the ASEAN Community. It hopes the East Asian cooperation process will help strengthen ASEAN. From this point of view, the hub-and-spoke structure, with ASEAN at the center, is what best serves its interests.

As a developed country in East Asia, Japan holds great influence in the region. For Japan, the best cooperation process is one where Japan plays a leading role in establishing rules, as well as in management. This is why it proposed an Asian version of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, based on the East Asia Summit.

South Korea can be seen as introducing the concept of an East Asian Community, as it advocated the establishment of the East Asia Vision Group. After that, though, it stopped actively promoting the East Asian cooperation process. Instead, it shifted its attention to establishing free trade areas in large markets beyond East Asia. It first completed free trade negotiations with the United States, and then started negotiations with the EU.

The inclusion of India, Australia and New Zealand enlarged the scale of East Asian cooperation. For the sake of their own interests, the three nations hope ASEAN+6 can make substantial progress and that the East Asia Summit can be established as a major channel of East Asian cooperation. This is in line with Japan's strategy.

China, Japan and South Korea have made progress in their cooperation. But due to differences in economic structures and strategic considerations, it is unlikely that any development will be rapid or in-depth. And it will be extremely difficult for Northeast Asia to play a dominant role in East Asian cooperation.

The existence of multiple parties in East Asian cooperation makes the process more complicated and its outcome difficult to predict.

A new concept

Given the current conditions, how can East Asian countries deepen their cooperation? To answer this, we first need a clear understanding of the proposed East Asian Community. In light of the huge diversity in East Asia, the East Asian Community cannot follow the path of the EU, but must find its own way.

ASEAN has provided a telling example. Based on the huge differences among its member nations, ASEAN adopted a flexible and progressive approach. And it has always pursued common development through consultations. This provides a good lesson for the East Asian Community.

However, East Asia is different from ASEAN. The diversity among its member countries is greater. Therefore, the construction of the East Asian Community will be more difficult than that of ASEAN, and it must be carried out differently.

For these reasons, the establishment of the East Asian Community can only be regarded as a long-term goal. The countries should explore an appropriate path and model for it while striving for national development.

In East Asia, it is hard to establish a highly integrated regional organization like the EU. The East Asia Community is essentially a regional cooperative system made up of multiple frameworks. The system's fundamental function is to ensure stability, security and development for the region.

Based on this understanding, the priority in East Asian cooperation should be given to deepening practical cooperation in various fields. Meanwhile, a more open and flexible approach should be adopted in choosing members, frameworks and mechanisms. In this way, ASEAN will not need to worry about being dwarfed by larger regional mechanisms.

Of course, in order to avoid hostile competition, strong coordination is required between different frameworks and mechanisms. They should complement each other, but not constrain each other.

All mechanisms, including ASEAN+1, ASEAN+3 and ASEAN+6, should be allowed to develop side by side before discussions on possibly integrating them into a single entity are conducted.

From the aspect of economic cooperation, it is important to promote the establishment of a free trade area in East Asia. But new developments in East Asia should be taken into account.

The East Asian economy has enjoyed rapid development in the past two decades. Major countries in this region have all adopted a strategy of opening up. They have achieved economic growth through the introduction of capital and advanced technology from Western countries and the development of export-oriented manufacturing industries. A production network, driven by external demand, has been formed in the region.

The recent international financial crisis proves such a development model can no longer continue in East Asia. East Asia should therefore change its development model by creating internal motivation for its economic development. In other words, countries in the region should shift to economic development driven by domestic demand.

East Asian cooperation should play a prominent role in hastening this strategic adjustment. Countries should now focus their economic cooperation on promoting industrial restructuring and improving regional development conditions, including building infrastructure, facilitating the flow of human resources, and increasing residents' incomes and purchasing power. As they adjust the focus of their cooperation, East Asian countries will be able to reduce political disputes while making their economic growth more endogenous.

The author is a research fellow with the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences