The Boao Forum for Asia (BFA) strives to accelerate economic cooperation in and beyond the region.

As Chinese President Xi Jinping said in the opening ceremony of the BFA annual conference 2013 on Sunday, China seeks common development in Asia.

Common development is in line with the general trend of Asia. Whereas the EU started internal cooperation in the 1950s and strengthened political and economic integration in the 1990s, Asia lags behind in economic integration. Asian countries have begun to acknowledge this and to deliver efforts to bridge the gap.

With the US as the world's sole superpower after the Cold War, and China as the second largest economy since 2010, some voices in the US have proposed the idea of joint leadership from the US and China. Some US allies, such as Japan, also have expressed concerns about the idea.

The doubts around China's rise and its future stance have never dissolved. China diminishes the concerns by focusing on Asia and seeking common development within the region. China follows the tide of interdependence, and identifies itself with Asian economic integration rather than seeking regional hegemony.

Interdependence means fragility and vulnerability, and Chinese development depends to a high degree on the development of other countries. In this sense, China actually shares the same destiny as the outside world, and in particular with its regional neighbors.

Cooperation has meant close dialogue and coordination in respect of important regional issues, but Asian countries have meanwhile maintained some distance and therefore independence from each other, and avoided being bound together.

Asian cultures, politics, and histories are very different, so a clean-cut and formal union like the EU isn't the model.

Taking into account the above, the BFA has adopted flexible forms to push forward Asian integration.

Governmental and nongovernmental tracks run in parallel, and officials, entrepreneurs and academia representatives gather to seek common ground.

No single voice dominates the forum, and all voices are listened to and respected. The communication of views is aimed at shaping collective wisdom.

Although China has showed a strong desire for common development to the outside world, it still faces some knotty problems in achieving this goal.

Long-standing territorial disputes prevent China from further improving economic connections with some other countries, such as Vietnam, the Philippines, and Japan.

Vietnamese sovereignty claims over the Nansha and Xisha islands overlap with those of China. The Philippines filed a formal complaint against China in the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea, and the Sino-Japanese relationship has continuously deteriorated in recent years due to island disputes.

Some countries accuse China of bullying its smaller neighbors. It's difficult to reverse such alleged image. The appeal for common development helps, but cannot fundamentally resolve the problem.

The trade volume between the Philippines and China is far from satisfying compared with that between China and Singapore or Malaysia.

The lack of mutual political trust negatively impacts the economic cooperation.

From this point of view, China's foreign trade layout is not well balanced, and the interdependence isn't even.

As with other Asian countries, China is on the path of deep political and economic reforms to seek development opportunities, and is discarding the outdated ideas hindering further development. Without resolving domestic problems well, the long-term driving force behind economic development will be hard to find, and the external cooperation is doomed to failure.

The BFA has provided a platform for China to communicate better with its potential Asian partners.

However, the BFA alone is not enough in achieving Asian common development. Cool-headed thinking and more actual work are needed.



The author is a research fellow in international relations at Hainan Provincial Party School. opinion@globaltimes.com.cn