Chinese regionalism presents a distinctive blueprint pattern of regionalism, primarily motivated by political or geopolitical considerations rather than economics.

In 1989, East Asian regional economies commenced the pursuit of market-driven economic development via the vehicles of investment, trade and regional cooperation. It is economic dynamism accelerated by the world multilateral trading system and its international economic institutions such as the World Bank, IMF, GATT and then later, the WTO. It is also a period corresponding to the end of Cold War (1945-1991). Some view this earlier period of growth in Asian economies as a chain reaction that commenced with a surge in the economic growth of Japan in the 1960s. In the 1970s, the dynamism of Japan's economy spread to contiguous areas such as Taiwan, South Korea and other newly industrializing economies. In the 1980s, the contagion of economic growth spread to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and China. A chain reaction would also eventually spread to the more remote contiguous areas of India and Pakistan. Asian economies, as a whole, experienced an Asian real annual Gross Domestic Product (GDP) that doubled the world's averages, reportedly 5.6% in the 1970s, 6.9% in the 1980s, and 7.4% in the early 1990s. In the following years, China's economic growth rates would surpass all others.

In the early 1990s, the World Bank predicted that in the early days of the new millennium, China would overtake the US as the largest economy in the world. In November 2006, as reported in the Wall Street Journal, former World Bank Chief James Wolfensohn warned Western countries of an economic future and altered balance of power dominated by China and India. Based on projections by investment bank Goldman Sachs, Wolfensohn predicted that within 25 years the combined GDP of China and India would exceed that of the G7 nations. China, by 2030 to 2040, would become the world's largest economy. By 2050, "China's current $2 tn GDP is set to balloon to $48.6 tn, while that of India, whose economy weighs in at under a trillion dollars, would hit $27 tn." He also highlighted the recent and substantial investments of both China and India in Africa, as examples of how these two emerging giants are exercising their increasing global influence.

Analyst Magazine, Regional Economic Integration, Chinese Regionalism, East Asian Regional Economies, Market-driven Economic Development, Multilateral Trading System, World Trade Organization, WTO, Association of Southeast Asian Nations, ASEAN, Asian Economies, Gross Domestic Product, GDP, Global GDP, North American Free Trade Agreement, NAFTA, Economic Policies, Economic Liberalism.