CHINA AND EAST ASIAN ECONOMIC INTEGRATION AND COOPERATION YUNLING ZHANG* Chinese Academy of Social Sciences

China’s role in the East Asian economic development has grown increasingly important since China becomes a rapidly growing market for other regional economies. China’s participation is essential to the progress of the East Asian economic integration. Due to its great diversity, East Asian trade and investment arrangements have to be gradual and flexible. The foundation of East Asian FTA have been gradually built up beyond “functional integration ” as observed in intra-regional FDI flow, a new regional network of production and services. A pragmatic approach is to negotiate East Asian FTA on the bases of thre