When the China-Asean free trade zone was proposed by Zhu Rongji, the former Chinese premier, a decade ago, Asean governments were astounded because we thought China was hesitant to open up its economy further through bilateral and regional FTAs. It was a strategic move on the part of the Chinese to develop strong economic ties with Asean so that Asean can see China’s growth as an opportunity and not as a threat. I told the US trade representative then that if there was no US-Asean FTA within 10 to 20 years, Asean’s economy will increasingly integrate with the China market, and the US will
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