The Role of C hina in A sia's Evolution to Global Economic Prominence

The objective of this article is to show how C hina's rapid growth was instrumental in integrating A sian economies with each other and mutually supporting rise of a dynamic A sia. It demonstrates the thorough structural transformations that the C hinese and A sian economies underwent over the last three decades. In a short span of three decades C hinese economy made a sizeable regional and global niche for itself. C hina's vertiginous growth became instrumental in integrating the real economies in the region. C hina and the neighbouring A sian economies influenced and shaped each other's economic evolution. Trade, foreign direct investment ( FDI ) and vertically integrated production networks were the principal channels of market‐led integration. C hina's rise as a regional economic power, before becoming a global one, was a substantially significant economic event. A defining moment in C hina's economic relationship with its A sian neighbours was the outbreak of the regional financial crisis in 1997–98. Similarly when the global financial crisis (2007–09) struck, C hina's macroeconomic fundamentals were strong, and it helped propel regional growth. In several other important ways, C hina sways not only the regional economies but also the global economy.