Abstract
Triggered by the ever closer regional integration and the rise of China, the geopolitical landscape of Asia has changed greatly since the end of the Cold War. Not only have a large number of new institutions for regional cooperation emerged, but China and some smaller countries are also playing an ever more active role in regional architecture building. Yet, the proliferation of various institutions indicate that the region lacks a unified or comprehensive institution, especially in the security domain. With the U.S.-led Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) as well as China’s many strategic initiatives competing for membership, major powers are slowly taking the lead in the building of regional economic architecture, while the new security architecture in Asia is evolving around how major powers, China and the U.S. in particular, seek regional leadership by working with each other, and engage all other countries to address their common challenges. Within this context, China must have a balanced strategy between its domestic development goals and international endeavors, and speeding up its domestic reform and opening-up will be the basis of its growing leadership in future regional architecture building in Asia.
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