China- ASEAN Relations: Opportunities and Challenges

Abstract

With the changing circumstances the relations between both the states have changed from hostility to prosperity as both the blocks especially the founding members of the ASEAN have been hostile due to the Cold war politics. But as soon as the Cold War came to an end the relations were quickly changed to most friendly. The signing of free trade agreement in 2001 has presented a greater opportunity for the China- ASEAN to increase the bilateral trade between both the parties. But with the emergence of new powers like India which is vying for the dominancy in Asia and can create a big problem for the ASEAN-China relations due to the fact that the competition would threaten the Chinese influence in ASEAN.