Historical Experience for and Realistic Challenges to Building Security Order in the Asia-Pacific Region

By Yang Mingjie

CPAPD Executive Council Member, and Director and Research fellow, Institute of Taiwan Studies, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences

Compared with the rest of the world, the Asia-Pacific region has maintained a relatively stable and prosperous overall posture in the past three decades.Despite the ups and downs of hot security issues in the region, they have been basically under reasonable crisis management and control.In the region, the mechanism of security dialogue and cooperation from bilateral to multilateral has also yielded fruitful results.The shaping and maintenance of this security situation benefits from the economic pursuit of freedom and openness as well as common prosperity; the pursuit of comprehensive measures and win-win cooperation on security; and the strategic pursuit of increasing trust, dispelling doubts, seeking common ground while reserving differences by the relevant countries in the region.However, this promising security situation is facing severe challenges, and the building of security order in the Asia-Pacific region has reached a new historical turning point.

I.From the perspective of historical experience, the relatively prosperous and stabile Asia-Pacific region is benefited from the positive interactions among the region's strategy, development and security.The concept of common, comprehensive,cooperative and sustainable security is being practiced steadily.

First, giving importance to and seeking pursuit of economic and social development by regional countries have become an important cornerstone of regional security.To a large extent and on a considerable scale, it has become the consensus of regional countries to seek security through development and promote security through development.Particularly, the economic development of the Asian region has been in the forefront of the world economy in recent decades,and the regional economic growth accounts for more than 60% of the world economic growth.Economic prosperity is not only conducive to the internal stability and social governance of various countries, but also radiating externally, boosting the positive momentum of regional economic cooperation.Under the guidance of the concept of seeking common development and sharing prosperity, the economic and trade cooperation mechanisms at various levels in a sense have also become the "ballast stone" of regional security relations.Economic cooperation frameworks at regional and sub-regional levels continuously transmit positive energy to the field of security.

Second, mutual trust measures and institution building in the field of security are highly valued and begin expanding to the field of economic and social development.Although the Asia-Pacific region is facing many security differences and difficulties, yet in the past quite a long time, the regional major countries highly treasure the overall interests of various countries and the region, and actively build multi-level security dialogue channels and mutual trust mechanisms through different channels and in different forms.These channels and mechanisms have effectively dispelled the strategic doubts and differences on specific issues of relevant countries, and have achieved relatively effective crisis management and control of some sensitive hot and difficult issues.The new inter-regional security cooperation mechanism has not only yielded tangible results in non-traditional security fields such as anti-terrorism and transnational crime, but some mechanisms also begin to incorporate economic and social development cooperation.The combination of development and security has played an energy multiplier role in promoting regional stability.

Third, it is true that major countries have strategic differences to different degree, but dialogue and cooperation are generally taken as the main strategic option.Structural and non-structural contradictions among major countries in the region exist for a long time, even get intensified in a certain time and space.However, the relevant countries basically insist on not rashly touching each other's bottom line and red line, and still base themselves on strategic management and control even in the process of crisis.This tacit understanding of strategic choices among major countries has made positive contributions to regional security and stability posture.

II.Currently, the relatively stable security posture in the Asia-Pacific region is encountering deep-seated strategic threats and challenges.The positive interaction among strategy & security and development may be reversed.

First, against the background of weak global economic recovery and de-globalization process,individual countries have rampantly challenged the order of regional economic cooperation based on freedom and openness out of unilateral consideration.The prospect of Asia-Pacific cooperation, which is undergoing a new process of regional economic integration, is greatly shadowed.Unilateralism, trade protectionism and bullying in the economic and trade fields do not only spill over into the security field, but also have a great negative impact on the cultural exchanges in the Asia-Pacific region.The concept of economy and security based on the common pursuit of the people of this region is challenged.

Second, the extremist perception and behavior of the security cooperation structure seriously impacts the current stable posture.On the one hand, an individual country has pieced together new networks of allies and partnerships aimed at third countries, which have unjustifiably increased regional tensions.On the other hand,new demands on the existing traditional military alliances increase the difficulties of strategic choice of regional allies, and even create new security issues.

Third, the return of an individual country’s security strategies to the traditional confrontation between major powers intensifies regional tensions and brings the strategic choice of dialogue and cooperation as the mainstream back to confrontation and suppression.

Faced with new threats and challenges, we must earnestly sum up our historical experience,in combination with development of the current security situation, constantly strengthen the regional economic and security dialogue and cooperation, jointly resist unilateral bullying,oppose risky and extreme acts of strategic choices of some major powers, and reshape a new pattern of benign interaction of regional security.