China's multilateral approach to world order: Implications for regional cooperation*

Answer to inducing China's active and full participation in regional cooperation scheme in Northeast Asia has been long sought by many. In the course, what they have overlooked is China's willingness to participate in such scheme when the conditions of world order are met: a world order built upon Five Principles of Peaceful Co‐existence, not dominated by one single individual power, and by which national sovereignty is fully guaranteed. Otherwise, China claims, prerequisites for cooperation, confidence and trust, would never be built among the concerned parties. In recent times, China has taken the initiatives to achieve this end, as reflected in its “summit diplomacy”. Thus far, the consequence of such an effort has been regarded very positive. Based on this observation, the paper explores the correlation between the consequence of China's omni‐directional diplomacy and subsequent changes in its attitude toward cooperation at regional level. It finds that there is a strong correlation between the two variables as proven in ASEAN and ARF.