An interesting but distorted analysis

Comments on Mie Oba "Japan and the new wave of regionalism in Asia", 15/03/2016

It seems the author has an interesting but highly questionable interpretation or statements of certain events.

For example, the third paragraph reads “China’s new regionalism is not limited to economic cooperation. In a May 2014 speech, Xi outlined a new perspective on regional security, insisting that ‘it is for the people of Asia to run the affairs of Asia, solve the problems of Asia and uphold the security of Asia’. This perspective stresses the necessity of China’s leadership in building a new Asian security structure.”

The last sentence, “This perspective stresses the necessity of China’s leadership in building a new Asian security structure”, would certainly represents a distorted meaning of what “it is for the people of Asia to run the affairs of Asia, solve the problems of Asia and uphold the security of Asia”.

The fact is that Asia does not equal China alone and the people of Asia is not Chinese alone! It is hard to understand how that could be interpreted as “This perspective stresses the necessity of China’s leadership in building a new Asian security structure.”

Then, there is the following paragraph: “RCEP is an effort to promote ASEAN-centred regional economic integration. Compared to the TPP, RCEP emphasises the importance of economic developmental cooperation in the region. Some analyses tend to characterise the TPP and RCEP as reflecting a confrontation or competition between the United States and China for hegemony in Asia.”

One the one hand, the author acknowledges RCEP is ASEAN-centred and on the other hand the author seems to also imply or at least accept RCEP is a Chinese tool to confront or compete with the US for hegemony in Asia.

Is that simply an oversimplification? I am not sure.