China, Japan and S. Korea must eye the best despite disputes

China, South Korea and Japan recently held the final pragmatic negotiation on a free trade area on schedule. Despite of no concession in sovereignty doctrine, the three countries will get along with one another in the end.

Obviously, it is inappropriate time to boost China-Japan-South Korea Free Trade Area at present. With the rational halt of the territorial dispute to come, however, the three countries will resume their normal life and help one another as neighbors, and at the end reach the agreement on free trade area.

Looking around today’s world, we see almost all neighboring countries have established an economic integration and cooperation mechanism in their free trade areas to cope with challenges. As the world ushers into a new era of “collaborative” competition, it is hard for one country to rise and develop alone.

In retrospect, China, Japan and South Korea had missed cooperative opportunities time and again due to historical legacies. The idea of the China-Japan-South Korea Free Trade Area wasn’t proposed until 2002 when the China-Japan- South Korea leader’s summit was held.

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