Despite the continuing growth of East Asia as a new engine driving the world economy, the prospect of a U.S.-China rivalry and the troubled relations between Japan and China pose challenges for the region's future stability, experts from Southeast Asia said at a recent symposium in Tokyo.
Concern lingers within the Association of Southeast Asian Nations that China could use its widening trade and investment ties as a political tool, and Japan needs to regain its soft power through more non-economic engagement with the region, they said.
Researchers from think tanks in ASEAN member states discussed the changing economic and security landscape in East Asia during the symposium organized on Nov. 8 by the Keizai Koho Center.