China makes public its dream for Greater Asia Co-prosperity Sphere

Chinese President Xi Jinping at the opening ceremony of the 2014 Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) CEO Summit in Beijing

In my post “China’s Greater Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere” on January 28, 2012, I said: “Decades ago, Japan shed lots of blood to fight for the establishment of its Greater East Asia Co-prosperity Sphere but failed disastrously. However, it seems that China will succeed in establishing a greater Asia Co-prosperity Sphere centred on China without firing one bullet if it succeeds in setting a North Korean model.”

In the sphere, China could exploit the cheap labour, natural resources and markets in less developed Asian countries and offer them its vast market.

At that time, such an idea was talked about amongst my friends. However, China’s efforts to set up a North Korea model failed, but it has set up free trade area (FTAs) with ASEAN and New Zealand and…