Asian Economic Cooperation in the New Millennium: China's Economic Presence (review)

Asian Economic Cooperation in the New Millennium consists of a revised set of papers presented at the 24th American Committee on Asian Economic Studies conference in Beijing, during May 27-29, 2002. The conference was co-sponsored by Peking University School of Economics and the China Reform Forum. The book under review is also the first volume in the new series Advanced Research in Asian Economic Studies. Before the book came into print, four articles included in the volume had been published in the Journal of Asian Economics (JAE) and are reprinted here from the JAE. The papers in the book are divided into three parts: "Regional Economic Integration" (eight articles), "Asian Policy & Performance" (four articles), and "Focus on China" (six articles). This classification reveals a clear orientation of the book. Calla Wiemer wrote a very effective Introduction to the collection of papers in the book. The reader can get a pretty complete picture of the contents from her summary and we should all be thankful for her great service. Wiemer's Introduction puts the papers under four categories: (1) "Gains from Economic Exchange"; (2) "Financial Stability, Crisis Recovery, and Exchange Rates"; (3) "Institution Building and Clout of the Region Globally"; and (4) "China's Presence". Manoranjan Dutta, the editor of the series, wrote a preface for the book. Another book useful as a complement to this one is a volume edited by Kanishka Jayasuriya (2004) that covers many of the same topics.

Myoung-Ho Shin, vice president of the Asian Development Bank, gave the Inaugural Address to the conference. Shin starts with an important theme of the book: the development of the regional economic cooperation in Asia. Shin goes on to discuss the role of the Asian Development Bank in promoting the Asian economic cooperation. Shin provides more details on two topics: (1) The Central Asia Regional Economic Cooperation; and (2) the Partnership of ADP and PRC, and concludes with a discussion of the implication of China's membership in WTO. Shin's address set a tone for the conference, and also stated ADB's commitment to achieving the Millennium Development Goals.

The book is fortunate in having the last major article of D. Gale Johnson (1916-2003). Johnson was the keynote speaker for the conference during his last visit to China. His article on the benefits of globalization is reprinted from JAE. (See Ruttan 2004 for the life-long work of Johnson). This article expands on the food-population issue in his presidential address to the American Economic Association (Johnson 2000). Johnson sees globalization consisting of far more than the international movement of goods and investment. The flow of ideas and knowledge has a greater impact on people in the developing world. In his presidential address, he explored the significance of this spread of knowledge on agriculture productivity, and the escape from the Malthusian trap. In this article, he looks at the same theme from the perspective of globalization, and explains how globalization promotes the agriculture productivity not only in developed countries but also in developing countries. He gives five reasons why globalization becomes possible and effective. Among the issues raised by globalization, he focuses on the relationship between income inequality and globalization. To critics of globalization who blame it for rising inequality, Johnson argues that globalization raises living standards in countries or areas reached by it. Inequality arises because some poor countries or areas have not been helped by it. Therefore, Johnson sees the solution of the inequality problem in more globalization, not less globalization. Globalization is manifest in the worldwide dominance of the market, and he points to restrictions on markets as the source of income inequality. Johnson uses the example of urban-rural inequality in China to make this point. Johnson is true to his Chicago school of...