China's approaches to the institutionalization of regional multilateralism

Over the last few years, China has promoted all kinds of regional and sub-regional cooperation in Asia. This research finds that the extent of China's drive for institutionalization of cooperative regional multilateral processes is affected by two primary considerations: (1) distribution of power among the forum participants, and whether the major players are well-disposed towards China or not so; and (2) the importance of the issues that the specific forum is set up to deal with to the political, economic or security interests of China as well as other participating states.