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A sign about the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) meeting in Gyeongju, South Korea, September 24, 2025. South Korea will hold the annual Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation meeting in Gyeongju from October 31 to November 1. [Photo/Xinhua]
By Timothy Kerswell
The world is not entering a new era of cooperation. It is entering an age where economic policy is being weaponized. Tariffs, bans on technology, and financial pressure are being used to preserve hierarchies, not build prosperity. As the 2025 Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Economic Leaders' Meeting opens in South Korea on October 31 and November 1, the Asia-Pacific has a clear choice: To build a more cooperative economic future or to allow a small number of powers to fracture it for their own strategic gain.
This year's theme, "Building a Sustainable Tomorrow: Connect, Innovate, Prosper," speaks to a shared ambition. But ambition without the political will to back it up is theater. Many economies pay lip service to multilateralism at meetings and then do everything they can to undermine it as soon as they return home. By layering tariffs, restricting the flow of technology, and demanding others line up with their geopolitical preferences, they are trampling over the very foundations of shared growth.
The problem is not protectionism itself. States have every right to use economic instruments to pursue their own development strategies. Strategic industrial policy has played an essential role for many developing economies, and sovereignty over economic choices is not only legitimate but necessary. What is illegitimate is the weaponization of economic policy to entrench the dominance of a few actors and deny others the same right to develop.
That is precisely what we are seeing from the United States and some of its allies. Under the banner of "national security," Washington has imposed tariffs, export controls and investment restrictions targeting China's technological and industrial rise. These are not neutral policies. They are instruments of power, designed not for equal protection of all, but to perpetuate a hierarchy in the global economy.
The Asia-Pacific is the center of global economic gravity, accounting for nearly 60 percent of world GDP and about half of global trade. Economic coercion here is not a sideshow. It risks the very architecture of trade, investment and development for the whole region. Smaller economies will feel this most acutely, facing higher costs, supply chain disruption, and shrinking policy space.
Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) was founded precisely to prevent this kind of economic fragmentation. Its mandate is to promote balanced, inclusive, sustainable, innovative and secure growth through economic integration. These are not ornamental words on some plaque. These are the principles that underpinned decades of shared prosperity across the region, lifting countless lives. To undermine them in the name of geopolitical rivalry is reckless and shortsighted.
The venue of the APEC meeting in Gyeongju, South Korea, September 24, 2025. [Photo/Xinhua]
True inclusive growth understands that nations have the right to protect their interests and can still participate in cooperative frameworks that lift all boats. Economic integration should be based on respect for sovereignty, not the erasure of it. China has advanced precisely this model through its advocacy of open regionalism, infrastructure connectivity, and mutually beneficial partnerships on projects like the Belt and Road Initiative, as highlighted in reporting from Xinhua. This is a vision of development that seeks to share economic power rather than hoard it.
The Asian Development Bank has already warned that rising trade tensions will dent growth trajectories, especially for developing economies in the region. This should not be seen as a technical forecast. It is a political signal. When major economies weaponize economic policy to enforce hierarchy, the region's overall capacity for collective development is squeezed.
China's approach to multilateralism is not a demand for some imposed uniformity of behavior. It is an insistence on mutual sovereignty, shared opportunity and non-discriminatory cooperation. That is why Beijing has consistently called for multilateral frameworks where all economies, regardless of size, have the chance to benefit from regional growth rather than being forced to choose sides in someone else's strategic contest. Inclusive growth does not require giving up national interests. It does require rejecting the coercion that forces others to give up theirs.
The Seoul meeting cannot afford to drift into platitudes and photo opportunities. It must address the central contradiction in the current global economic order. A regional architecture built on cooperation cannot survive if some of its members routinely turn that architecture into an instrument of pressure. Strengthening multilateral institutions, supporting capacity building, expanding digital and green partnerships, and standing up to coercion are the steps needed to protect genuine sovereignty for all.
The Asia-Pacific is at a fork in the road. One path leads to a multipolar economic order grounded in respect, reciprocity and shared prosperity. The other leads to a global economy weaponized for the benefit of an ever-shrinking circle of actors. China has been clear about its position. The only sustainable form of prosperity is one that is shared. The question now is whether some other economies will match that commitment with action, not just slogans.
Timothy Kerswell, a special commentator on current affairs for CGTN, is professor of political science at the School of Liberal Arts of Bennett University in India.
