As Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama pressed his plans for an East Asian community at the Summit in Thailand over the weekend, discussions on the old topic have once again been activated.

However, due to the lack of explicit progress and Japan's long-standing struggle with the United States on the issue, Hatoyama's version of the community is still a distant target that remains out of reach in the foreseeable future. Hatoyama has peddled his initiative on several occasions since he took office in Sept.

Since the outbreak of the Asian financial crisis in 1997, a growing "East Asian Consciousness" has been cultivated and cooperation among regional members has accordingly been boosted. The 10 plus 3 summit (the Association of Southeast Asian nations [ASEAN] and China, Japan and the Republic of Korea [ROK] ) was set up at the end of 1997 when leaders from the three were invited to the bloc's summit meeting.

However, conflicts between Japan and the US that have since emerged on the issue have gradually escalated into the irreconcilable struggle. In later 2004 and early 2005, the US Congress and some of American scholars denounced Koizumi's version of the East Asian community as lacking democracy and a move aimed at challenging the US-dominated East Asian order. Also, some US economic think tanks concluded that the Japan-advocated model would lead to separation of the much-anticipated trans-Pacific free trade area. Faced with growing pressure from the US, the Koizumi government worked out a new 10-plus-six formula that aimed to absorb Australia, New Zealand and India into the community in an attempt to rival the US' version.

Japan's move further intensified conflict with Washington. At an APEC meeting in Busan, ROK, at the end 2005, the US issued a statement, vowing to form a package of political, economic and cultural pacts with ASEAN members within 10 years and speed up talks with Seoul on a FTA. This was an indication of Washington's attempt to bring down the Tokyo-advocated East Asian community. The Bush administration raised the concept of a free trade area within APEC members (FTAAP) in mid-2006, saying that it allowed any form of FTA within the APEC framework but refused talks with Japan. In the late period of the Bush administration, the US took another step forward by working out the plan for a free trade area in the Pacific Rim. That prompted the then Japanese Yasuo Fukuda government to announce that Japan's Asian strategy was based on its alliance with the US and its cooperation with the ASEAN as the two pillars.

Despite its reaffirming support for a dollar-dominated international monetary system, Japan's aggressive "Asia development initiative" after the outbreak of the US financial crisis last year still worried the US, prompting US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to visit ASEAN countries and cook up a US edition of the "Mekong river development program".

The years-long Japan-US haggling indicates that Hatoyama's "East Asia community" concept is a continuation of their past conflict on this issue.

Hatoyama's "East Asian community" version consists of an economic community that is mainly built on FTA and EPA, a security community based on security coordination, military exchange and transparency as well as a common currency-based monetary community. Different from the previous ones, Hatoyama's version does not exclude the US, but at the same time stresses that Japan would change its previous excessive dependence on Washington and re-attach importance to ties with Asian nations.

However, in a recent speech in Tokyo, Japan's newly-appointed Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada hinted that the East Asian community should comprise the 10-member ASEAN, China, Japan, the ROK, Australia, New Zealand, and India, exclusive of the US. To placate the US, Hirofumi Hirano, Japan's chief Cabinet secretary made an immediate clarification, reaffirming the US-Japan alliance as the precondition to Japan's Asia strategy.

Japan's ambiguity and the US' precautions make it difficult for Tokyo to push for its East Asian community plans. Also, Hatoyama's stance of the community's membership being open only to sovereign nations is obviously contrary to the fact there are still some non-sovereign economic entities in the region. Without participation of these economic entities, any community would find it difficult to reflect the region's common interests.

The author is a researcher with the China Institute of Contemporary International Relations

(China Daily 10/26/2009 page4)