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Southeast Asia’s Tangled Web of Economic Ties May Help Limit China’s Sway

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Southeast Asia’s Tangled Web of Economic Ties May Help Limit China’s Sway

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5 min read
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What's inside?

Trade and geopolitics will determine the extent of China’s influence on the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).

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7

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Recommendation

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), a group of 10 economies with a diverse and multilayered global trade presence, counts China as its biggest trading partner. Some observers point to the possibility of a Chinese-led trade and investment bloc emerging to swallow up ASEAN. Yet the group’s regional and worldwide connections are varied and complex, casting doubt on that scenario, according to Asia expert Walter Lohman. getAbstract recommends this engaging analysis of an often-overlooked economic powerhouse to executives and investors.

Summary

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) – a political and economic entity consisting of Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam – has a global economic reach. The group’s members, in addition to conducting their own independent trade activities, act as a bloc under the ASEAN Free Trade Area and the ASEAN Economic Community, a unified market created in late 2015.

China, ASEAN’s largest outside trading partner, takes up 14% of the bloc’s exports and is the top importer for the group and its...

About the Author

Walter Lohman is director of the Asian Studies Center at the Heritage Foundation.


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