Facets of China’s Influence in the Economic Development and Integration of Asia

China’s economic pathway subsequent to 1978 is the greatest and most spectacular catching-up process ever succeded in the hystory of development. This country’s unprecedented race to regain the statute of a great economic power - lost in the 19th century, against the backdrop of the western industrial revolution – has developed at unequalled pace and produced exceptive results, overturning previous global hierarchies and exerting influence to the farthest corners of the world. Yet, nowhere else has its impact been more ample than in Asia, where China has become the largest regional economy, overriding Japan (2010), a highly developed country, although China itself is still an emerging economy. The channels which these influences are transmitted through are complex, pertaining to both the market mechanisms and to institutions and policies. In this paper we look at some of the influences exerted and changes triggered by China in Asia, through market mechanisms.