China's strategy of free trade area and economic regionalism

China's FTA strategy and its efforts in economic regionalism in the Pacific region are providing new impetus to deepening economic interdependence with its partners and domestic reform to sustain the country's economic growth. The FTAs in the Pacific region provide China and its economic partners with convenient access to their mutual markets, investment destinations and resources, expanding their economic cooperation and trade. China is increasingly able to obtain economic benefits from the regional network of FTAs while intensifying its economic and, by extension, political relations with its partners. In the face of the enormous economic benefits, China's partners, particularly those without geopolitical competition and territorial disputes with China, may view China's rise as an “opportunity” for their economic growth and accept its concept of “peaceful rise.” In this sense, China's FTA strategy and the regional network of FTAs may help China reap not only economic but also geopolitical interest, accelerating its rise at the systemic (global) and subsystemic (regional) levels.