Beyond Indochina: Southwest China, a new economic region

Abstract

The Regionalization of China. has A drastic change in China's economic policy took place in 1979 when the country adopted a more liberal, open trade policy with an aim to accelerate its modernization. While much been talked about the regionalization of NAFTA, the European Economic Community (EEC). The ASEAN Free Trade Area (AFTA) and SAARC, the regionalization program of the Chinese government has taken place with great success since. In addition to the Chinese government policy of openness, its regionalization program has been reinforced by a network of Chinese ethnic connection in Asia i.e. China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macao, Malaysia, and to a much smaller extent, Thailand.