The rise of China as an economic power has been greeted with a mixture of fear and hope by member states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, according to Chia Siow Yue, a senior research fellow with the Singapore Institute of International Affairs.
Despite concerns that China could someday dominate East Asia, ASEAN members also count on the country as a "second" engine of the region's growth, Chia told the April 14 symposium.
"Why fear? Because China's huge pool of cheap labor and World Trade Organization membership will capture ASEAN states' market shares in the U.S., Europe and Japan, and because China will increasingly divert foreign direct investment away from ASEAN," Chia said.