Reference to Inquirer.net news
Don't make a hasty conclusion that Japan is winning and China is losing the ties with ASEAN. Japan indeed scored on this occasion, but China has not lost ASEAN entirely. Japan may have the first-mover advantage in the region especially since the Plaza Accord in the mid-1980s which dramatically increased Japanese investments in East and Southeast Asia, but China is fast becoming the biggest investor in and trade partner of the ASEAN and its respective member economies.
With the exception of the Philippines and Vietnam with whom China has intense territorial disputes, every member-state (as well as ASEAN itself as a regional bloc) now has important political and economic bilateral relations with China. The interplay between the 'politics of business' and the 'business of politics' has always been important in understanding the political economy of Southeast Asia.
Still, the solutions to underdevelopment and poverty of the developing economies in the ASEAN cannot be depended on Japan and/or China. Given the current regional and global instability, self-reliance and self-sufficiency are never old-fashioned, stupid ideas for development strategies.
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