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The World Economy\u2019s Centre of
Gravity Shifts to Asia: The
Forty-Fourth Newsletter (2025) </td>
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The US has tried to use economic
and military pressure to
maintain a dominant position in
Asia, but the rise of China and
the region\u2019s agenda have made it
increasingly difficult. </td>
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alt="" width="1024"
srcset="https://thetricontinental.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Nguyen-Phan-Chanh-Vietnam-Market-Scene-1937-1024x577.jpg 1024w, https://thetricontinental.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Nguyen-Phan-Chanh-Vietnam-Market-Scene-1937-300x169.jpg 300w, https://thetricontinental.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Nguyen-Phan-Chanh-Vietnam-Market-Scene-1937-768x432.jpg 768w, https://thetricontinental.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Nguyen-Phan-Chanh-Vietnam-Market-Scene-1937-1536x865.jpg 1536w, https://thetricontinental.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Nguyen-Phan-Chanh-Vietnam-Market-Scene-1937.jpg 1600w"
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id="caption-attachment-130081" class="wp-caption-text"
style="text-align: center;margin: 10px 0;padding: 0;mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family: Helvetica;font-size: 16px;line-height: 150%;"><small>Nguy\u1ec5n
Phan Chánh<b> </b>(Vietnam),
<i>Market Scene</i>,
1937.</small></p>
</div>
</div>
<p
style="margin: 10px 0;padding: 0;mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family: Helvetica;font-size: 16px;line-height: 150%;text-align: left;">Dear
friends,</p>
<p
style="margin: 10px 0;padding: 0;mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family: Helvetica;font-size: 16px;line-height: 150%;text-align: left;">Greetings
from the desk of <a
href="https://thetricontinental.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=6a79324d3b4acfde1e7e546c6&id=aefe7b84d6&e=d206d0a40d"
style="mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #007C89;font-weight: normal;text-decoration: underline;"
moz-do-not-send="true">Tricontinental:
Institute for Social
Research</a>.</p>
<p
style="margin: 10px 0;padding: 0;mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family: Helvetica;font-size: 16px;line-height: 150%;text-align: left;">On
the last day of October
2025, leaders from the 21
nations of the Asia-Pacific
Economic Cooperation (<a
href="https://thetricontinental.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=6a79324d3b4acfde1e7e546c6&id=c205978fde&e=d206d0a40d"
style="mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #007C89;font-weight: normal;text-decoration: underline;"
moz-do-not-send="true">APEC</a>)
forum will meet in the city
of Gyeongju in the Republic
of Korea (South Korea) for
the organisation\u2019s 33<sup>rd</sup>
summit. Since its founding
in 1989 in Canberra,
Australia, APEC has promoted
building a zone of \u2018free and
open trade\u2019 \u2013 a concept
outlined by the Bogor Goals,
which came out of the <a
href="https://thetricontinental.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=6a79324d3b4acfde1e7e546c6&id=5b7aacb979&e=d206d0a40d"
style="mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #007C89;font-weight: normal;text-decoration: underline;"
moz-do-not-send="true">summit</a>
in Indonesia in 1994.</p>
<p
style="margin: 10px 0;padding: 0;mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family: Helvetica;font-size: 16px;line-height: 150%;text-align: left;">APEC
is a creature of its times.
First, it emerged as an
instrument of Japan\u2019s
Pacific Economic Cooperation
Council with the goal of
building regional supply
chains after the Plaza
Accord (1985) appreciated
the yen against the dollar.
Second, it was designed
during the Uruguay Round
(1986\u20131994) of the General
Agreement on Trade and
Tariffs, which ended with
the formation of the World
Trade Organisation. This was
the era of trade
liberalisation, when the
United States and its G7
partners \u2013 flush with the
sense that History had ended
and that every country would
orbit the US for eternity \u2013
pushed countries to open
their economies to North
Atlantic and Japanese
corporations. The US hoped
that the Maastricht Treaty
(1993), which created the
European Union, would lead
to a transatlantic free
trade agreement (though this
never happened) and that the
North Atlantic Free Trade
Agreement (1994) would yoke
Canada and Mexico to the US
in perpetuity.</p>
<div
class="single-post--content--media-block single-post--content--image"
style="text-align:center; margin:3em 0;">
<div id="attachment_130071"
class="wp-caption alignnone"><img decoding="async"
aria-describedby="caption-attachment-130071"
class="size-full wp-image-130071 img-responsive mcRssImage"
src="https://thetricontinental.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Leang-Seckon-Cambodia-The-New-Phnom-Penh-2010.jpg"
alt="" width="700"
srcset="https://thetricontinental.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Leang-Seckon-Cambodia-The-New-Phnom-Penh-2010.jpg 700w, https://thetricontinental.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Leang-Seckon-Cambodia-The-New-Phnom-Penh-2010-300x238.jpg 300w"
sizes="(max-width: 700px) 100vw, 700px" border="0"
style="max-width: 100%;width: 100%;padding-bottom: 0;display: inline;vertical-align: bottom;border: 0;height: auto;outline: none;text-decoration: none;-ms-interpolation-mode: bicubic;"
moz-do-not-send="true">
<p
id="caption-attachment-130071" class="wp-caption-text"
style="text-align: center;margin: 10px 0;padding: 0;mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family: Helvetica;font-size: 16px;line-height: 150%;"><small>Leang
Seckon (Cambodia), <i>The
New Phnom Penh</i>,
2010.</small></p>
</div>
</div>
<p
style="margin: 10px 0;padding: 0;mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family: Helvetica;font-size: 16px;line-height: 150%;text-align: left;">For
years, the US came to APEC
summits and pushed for a
free trade area that would
allow its corporations to
dominate the region. The
Bogor Goals of 1994 were
meant to serve this purpose,
but they failed for various
reasons \u2013 including internal
fears that Asia\u2019s growing
industrial prowess would
outcompete the US. In 2005,
four countries (Brunei,
Chile, New Zealand, and
Singapore) signed the
Trans-Pacific Strategic
Economic Partnership
agreement, which added eight
more countries (Australia,
Canada, Japan, Malaysia,
Mexico, Peru, the US, and
Vietnam) by 2013. But it was
too little, too late. The
financial crisis of 2008
sent a tremor through the
Global South, which came to
recognise the fragility of
the North Atlantic economies
and the need to build a
South-South trade and
development alternative.</p>
<p
style="margin: 10px 0;padding: 0;mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family: Helvetica;font-size: 16px;line-height: 150%;text-align: left;">In
2007, the eve of the
financial crisis, China was
already the third-largest
economy in the world. In
2010, it overtook Japan to
become the second-largest
economy. Today, China is the
largest trading partner of
most countries in the
Asia-Pacific, including 13
of the 21 APEC countries.
After the 2008 financial
crisis, the Pacific Rim
countries deprioritised
pursuing a free trade
agreement with the US. And
when US President Donald
Trump withdrew his country
from the Trans-Pacific
Partnership in 2017, the
remaining countries
continued discussions
without Washington at the
table. Ten out of the eleven
signatories of the
Comprehensive and
Progressive Agreement for
Trans-Pacific Partnership,
which emerged from these
discussions, were APEC
members.</p>
<div
class="single-post--content--media-block single-post--content--image"
style="text-align:center; margin:3em 0;">
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class="wp-caption alignnone"><img decoding="async"
aria-describedby="caption-attachment-130031"
class="size-large wp-image-130031 img-responsive mcRssImage"
src="https://thetricontinental.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Kim-In-Sok-North-Korea-Rainshower-at-the-Bus-Stop-2016-1024x517.jpg"
alt="" width="1024"
srcset="https://thetricontinental.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Kim-In-Sok-North-Korea-Rainshower-at-the-Bus-Stop-2016-1024x517.jpg 1024w, https://thetricontinental.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Kim-In-Sok-North-Korea-Rainshower-at-the-Bus-Stop-2016-300x152.jpg 300w, https://thetricontinental.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Kim-In-Sok-North-Korea-Rainshower-at-the-Bus-Stop-2016-768x388.jpg 768w, https://thetricontinental.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Kim-In-Sok-North-Korea-Rainshower-at-the-Bus-Stop-2016.jpg 1200w"
sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" border="0"
style="max-width: 100%;width: 100%;padding-bottom: 0;display: inline;vertical-align: bottom;border: 0;height: auto;outline: none;text-decoration: none;-ms-interpolation-mode: bicubic;"
moz-do-not-send="true">
<p
id="caption-attachment-130031" class="wp-caption-text"
style="text-align: center;margin: 10px 0;padding: 0;mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family: Helvetica;font-size: 16px;line-height: 150%;"><small>Kim
In Sok (Democratic
People\u2019s Republic of
Korea), <i>Rain
Shower at the Bus
Stop</i>, 2016.</small></p>
</div>
</div>
<p
style="margin: 10px 0;padding: 0;mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family: Helvetica;font-size: 16px;line-height: 150%;text-align: left;">At
a 2011 summit of the
Association of Southeast
Asian Nations (ASEAN), some
members discussed the
possibility of an
Asia-centric free trade
agreement. Negotiations
proceeded with the
confidence that ASEAN\u2019s ten
members \u2013 plus China and
India \u2013 would anchor a
significant trade network.
India eventually dropped
out, but all ten ASEAN
countries, as well as China,
Japan, South Korea,
Australia, and New Zealand,
remained in the process. In
2020, these countries signed
the Regional Comprehensive
Economic Partnership (RCEP)
\u2013 the largest trading bloc
in the world with almost a
third of the world\u2019s
population (2.3 billion) and
28% of the world\u2019s Gross
Domestic Product (GDP). By
comparison, the European
Union accounts for about 18%
of world GDP, while NAFTA
accounts for roughly 30% of
world GDP. The RCEP
accomplished a form of \u2018free
and open trade\u2019 \u2013 what APEC
aspired to achieve with its
Bogor Goals \u2013 while the US
remained isolated.</p>
<p
style="margin: 10px 0;padding: 0;mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family: Helvetica;font-size: 16px;line-height: 150%;text-align: left;">But
the US retains at least two
instruments to exercise
power in the Asia-Pacific:
APEC, which is less an
economic forum and more an
instrument for the US to
discipline its Asian allies,
and <a
href="https://thetricontinental.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=6a79324d3b4acfde1e7e546c6&id=bb8e0f0f9e&e=d206d0a40d"
style="mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #007C89;font-weight: normal;text-decoration: underline;"
moz-do-not-send="true">Rim
of the Pacific</a>
(RIMPAC), which is its
military arm. RIMPAC was
created in 1971 as part of
the Cold War architecture
against the Soviet Union but
has morphed into a mechanism
to exert naval power against
China and other
sovereign-seeking countries.
RIMPAC, which is organised
by the US Navy\u2019s
Indo-Pacific Command and
headquartered in Hawai\u2019i,
now includes Israeli
military assets. This should
create problems for members
such as Colombia, Chile, and
Malaysia, which have taken
strong positions against the
ongoing Israeli genocide
against Palestinians. All
APEC countries participate
in RIMPAC except China,
Russia, and Vietnam (China
participated until it was
excluded in 2018).</p>
<p
style="margin: 10px 0;padding: 0;mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family: Helvetica;font-size: 16px;line-height: 150%;text-align: left;">The
overlap between the
membership of APEC and
RIMPAC reveals the US
attempt to exercise hegemony
through <i>economic consent</i>
(APEC, which coordinates the
economic circuits of
capitalism) and <i>military
coercion</i> (RIMPAC,
which secures the military
conditions for that economic
order). While APEC appears
to be merely about
investment, supply chains,
and the digital economy, it
is in fact a mechanism to
ensure that the US \u2013 with at
least 260 military bases and
rotational sites, from
Australia\u2019s RAAF Base Darwin
to Japan\u2019s Kadena Air Base,
and with the RIMPAC military
manoeuvres \u2013 remains the
dominant power in the
region. The US strategy to
contain China is now firmly
anchored in the APEC-RIMPAC
dynamic. Unable to contest
the economic buoyancy of
China and its neighbours,
the US resorts to military
and diplomatic pressure
campaigns.</p>
<div
class="single-post--content--media-block single-post--content--image"
style="text-align:center; margin:3em 0;">
<div id="attachment_130041"
class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async"
aria-describedby="caption-attachment-130041"
class="size-large wp-image-130041 img-responsive mcRssImage"
src="https://thetricontinental.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Rodel-Tapaya-Philippines-Alamat-ni-Lam-ang-Legend-of-Lam-ang-2012-1024x764.jpg"
alt="" width="1024"
srcset="https://thetricontinental.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Rodel-Tapaya-Philippines-Alamat-ni-Lam-ang-Legend-of-Lam-ang-2012-1024x764.jpg 1024w, https://thetricontinental.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Rodel-Tapaya-Philippines-Alamat-ni-Lam-ang-Legend-of-Lam-ang-2012-300x224.jpg 300w, https://thetricontinental.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Rodel-Tapaya-Philippines-Alamat-ni-Lam-ang-Legend-of-Lam-ang-2012-768x573.jpg 768w, https://thetricontinental.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Rodel-Tapaya-Philippines-Alamat-ni-Lam-ang-Legend-of-Lam-ang-2012.jpg 1200w"
sizes="auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" border="0"
style="max-width: 100%;width: 100%;padding-bottom: 0;display: inline;vertical-align: bottom;border: 0;height: auto;outline: none;text-decoration: none;-ms-interpolation-mode: bicubic;"
moz-do-not-send="true">
<p
id="caption-attachment-130041" class="wp-caption-text"
style="text-align: center;margin: 10px 0;padding: 0;mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family: Helvetica;font-size: 16px;line-height: 150%;"><small>Rodel
Tapaya (Philippines),
<i>Alamat ni Lam-ang </i>(Legend
of Lam-ang), 2012.</small></p>
</div>
</div>
<p
style="margin: 10px 0;padding: 0;mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family: Helvetica;font-size: 16px;line-height: 150%;text-align: left;">The
summit in South Korea will
be enveloped by mass
demonstrations led by trade
unions of industrial and
agricultural workers, human
rights groups, and student
organisations. There will
also be pockets of
ultra-nationalist supporters
of former President Yoon Suk
Yeol (2022\u20132025) of the
right-wing People Power
Party, who declared martial
law in 2024. But these
groups will not shape the
bulk of the demonstrations,
which are for the creation
of a people-centred economy
in South Korea and against
the attempt to use the APEC
summit to entrench the
country\u2019s political elite
who remain shaken by the
fall of Yoon.</p>
<div
class="single-post--content--media-block single-post--content--image"
style="text-align:center; margin:3em 0;">
<div id="attachment_130091"
class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async"
aria-describedby="caption-attachment-130091"
class="wp-image-130091 size-large img-responsive mcRssImage"
src="https://thetricontinental.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Hun-Kyu-Kim-South-Korea-Draft-of-Long-Long-Summer-2017-e1761717900769-773x1024.jpg"
alt="" width="773"
srcset="https://thetricontinental.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Hun-Kyu-Kim-South-Korea-Draft-of-Long-Long-Summer-2017-e1761717900769-773x1024.jpg 773w, https://thetricontinental.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Hun-Kyu-Kim-South-Korea-Draft-of-Long-Long-Summer-2017-e1761717900769-226x300.jpg 226w, https://thetricontinental.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Hun-Kyu-Kim-South-Korea-Draft-of-Long-Long-Summer-2017-e1761717900769-768x1017.jpg 768w, https://thetricontinental.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Hun-Kyu-Kim-South-Korea-Draft-of-Long-Long-Summer-2017-e1761717900769.jpg 1053w"
sizes="auto, (max-width: 773px) 100vw, 773px" border="0"
style="max-width: 100%;width: 100%;padding-bottom: 0;display: inline;vertical-align: bottom;border: 0;height: auto;outline: none;text-decoration: none;-ms-interpolation-mode: bicubic;"
moz-do-not-send="true">
<p
id="caption-attachment-130091" class="wp-caption-text"
style="text-align: center;margin: 10px 0;padding: 0;mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family: Helvetica;font-size: 16px;line-height: 150%;"><small>Hun
Kyu Kim (South Korea),
<i>Draft of Long Long
Summer</i>, 2017.</small></p>
</div>
</div>
<p
style="margin: 10px 0;padding: 0;mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family: Helvetica;font-size: 16px;line-height: 150%;text-align: left;">As
the world economy\u2019s centre
of gravity shifts to Asia,
the US will use every
possible means to assert
itself. But it simply does
not have the tools to
dominate as it once did. One
productive use of APEC is
that it provides a platform
for US and Chinese leaders
to meet at a time when
spaces for bilateral
dialogue are shrinking. This
is why the media\u2019s focus has
been on the meeting between
Trump and China\u2019s President
Xi Jinping.</p>
<p
style="margin: 10px 0;padding: 0;mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family: Helvetica;font-size: 16px;line-height: 150%;text-align: left;">In
2013, President Xi used the
phrase \u2018community with a
shared future for humanity\u2019
(\u4eba\u7c7b\u547d\u8fd0\u5171\u540c\u4f53), which entered the
2017 Constitution of the
Communist Party of China. At
the 2014 APEC summit in
Beijing, Xi said that the
Asia-Pacific should not
become \u2018an arena of
competition\u2019 but should be
the location for \u2018a
community of common
destiny\u2019. Chinese officials
began to speak of an
\u2018Asia-Pacific community with
a shared future\u2019 (\u4e9a\u592a\u547d\u8fd0\u5171\u540c\u4f53),
which echoed the 2013
phrase. The essence of these
phrases is that Asian
countries should not strive
for bloc politics or
military alliances but
should be open to dialogue
with everyone and build
platforms that uphold the
dignity of all peoples.
While these are interesting
phrases, their noble
sentiments can only be
realised in the actual
process of history \u2013 when
people across the region see
their lives improve through
peace and development.</p>
<p
style="margin: 10px 0;padding: 0;mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family: Helvetica;font-size: 16px;line-height: 150%;text-align: left;">Warmly,</p>
<p
style="margin: 10px 0;padding: 0;mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family: Helvetica;font-size: 16px;line-height: 150%;text-align: left;">Vijay</p>
</span> </td>
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