China in the Emerging Reality of Asia Regional Higher Education

Abstract

Although many scholars are skeptical of regional cooperation in Asia on the basis that the expansive cultural and social diversity in this region and its loose framework of associations provide no credible plan among Asian governments for building regionalism (Aggarwal and Koo 2007), regulatory regionalism is evolving in the region. This seems especially the case for Asian countries when taking into account the rise of China coupled with the current economic difficulties of the United States and Japan and the possible effect of these on their ability to influence regional engagement. Among the different forms of regionalization that may emerge, economic integration is key, as it is definitely accelerating. The initiation of the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN)—China Free Trade Area in 2010 has great potential to produce huge benefits on all sides. In South Asia, the Dhaka Declaration of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) was established in 2005 to relieve poverty in this region. Kazakhstan, Kyrgy, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan have signed an agreement to pursue a strategy for the development of the Central Asian economic community to facilitate a free-trade area, a customs union, and a unified labor market. All these regional economic cooperation establishments play an important role in promoting economic development in Asia, witness the overall value of exports in ASEAN in 2008 amounting to US$180 billion, while imports reached US$202.6 billion.