Economic Development and Evolution of Geo-economic Pattern of the “Indo-Pacific” Region

Abstract

This paper mainly discusses three issues from the perspective of geo-economics: First, discuss the two arguments of “the transfer of world economic centers” and the “counterbalancing China’s increasing geo-presence” through comparing the economic development dynamics of “Indo-Pacific” and “Asia-Pacific” and analyzing the economic interaction between the two regions; second, provide evidences that containing China with “Indo-Pacific” strategy may impede regional economic development by analyzing the periodic changes of the “Indo-Pacific” geo-economic pattern and comparing the influence and contribution of “Indo-Pacific” strategic partners (the U.S., Japan, Australia and India) and their balancing object (China); third, put forward some thoughts on strengthening the geo-economic cooperation in the “Indo-Pacific” region by comparing the economic inputs of China, the U.S., Japan, Australia and India in the “Indo-Pacific” region and analyzing their different attitudes towards the “Indo-Pacific” strategy. The main conclusions are that: first, despite no obvious transfer trend of the world economic center, the increased dependence of the “Asia-Pacific” region on the “Indo-Pacific” region enhances the geo-economic importance of the latter; second, the origin of the “Indo-Pacific” concept is resulted from not only the geo-economics itself but also the realistic or perceived threat on the U.S., Japan, Australia and India caused by China’s development model successfully driven by the geo-economics; third, as China has surpassed and become the leading force and defender in the regional economic cooperation years ago, the U.S., Japan, Australia and India are the challengers to the current order of the geo-economic pattern; fourth, the “Indo-Pacific” region is more important to the geo-economics of China, Japan, Australia and India than that to the U.S.; fifth, if the “Indo-Pacific” strategy attempts to contain China, it will inevitably lead to the tearing of geopolitics and geo-economics, and then damage the economic growth and integration of the region; sixth, China shall pay attention to the strategic direction of the “Indo-Pacific” strategy, seek the converging points of common interests with other countries, and dissolve the adverse factors. Meanwhile, efforts shall also be made to continuously drive a more open and inclusive geo-economic cooperation model.

Yanfang Li, Ph.D., associate professor, Research Institute for Indian Ocean Economies, Yunnan University of Finance and Economics. Her main research field is south Asia Economy.

Note: To avoid confusion, we regard “Asia-Pacific” and “India-Pacific” as region and regard ASEAN, South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation, Gulf Cooperation Council and Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa as area.