A peaceful and prosperous East Asia is coalescing around a steadily growing Chinese economy and the region’s determination to foster cooperation and amity.

ASEAN (ten Southeast Asian countries) and China now represent one-fourth of the world population and one-fifth of the global GDP.

That huge and increasingly compact economic area follows its own business cycle dynamics, with patterns of commerce and finance governed by expanding free trade agreements.

ASEAN economies are currently accelerating toward a 5.2% GDP increase in the rest of this year.

China, with the IMF’s blessing, is transitioning toward a high-quality growth consistent with its noninflationary potential of about 5%. That’s a development path observed during this year’s first quarter GDP growth of 5.3%, driven by investments and industrial production.

The regional trade is booming. ASEAN remains China’s by far the largest trade partner. Their bilateral trade during this year’s first quarter increased 6.5 percent, with exports and imports growing 7.7% and 4.5%, respectively.

The brightest spot of world economy

Economic growth and increasingly expanding flows of free trade and finance will continue to support intra-regional commerce in goods and services. There is quite a bit of room for that. ASEAN’s trade with China – and ASEAN’s internal trade -- account for only one-fifth of the region’s total transborder business transactions.

Of particular importance is ASEAN’s good and prudent economic management. The Asian financial crisis of late 1990s is a distant memory and a good lesson in sound public policies.

Equally important is ASEAN’s apparently unique sense of Asian unity. That means staying out of geopolitical clashes while seeking cooperative and carefully negotiated solutions to regional problems -- always putting peace and prosperity at the top of political agenda.

For example, the unfortunate political instability in Myanmar is approached with patience and neighborly help. Ostracism, sanctions and sovereignty encroachments are not part of ASEAN’s statecraft.

That makes it possible to successfully manage relations with China for a solidly integrated and balanced regional trading area.

The ASEAN’s key unresolved issue with China are maritime borders in the South China Sea. But progress is being made. Negotiations on the Code of Conduct about overlapping border claims involving Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam have entered a final phase. It is, therefore, expected that an agreement will be reached by the 2026 deadline.

Taiwan – China’s “core red line” – is not a problem for ASEAN countries. They follow the “one-China” principle and policy, and they accept that Taiwan is part of China.

All that does not mean that the West’s tensions with China could not complicate Beijing’s harmonious and productive economic, political and security relations with its Southeast Asian neighbors. Indeed, some countries have already complained that they were pressured to take sides. Such problems could come up again as big power clashes about trade and security continue to worsen in the years ahead.

Will Europe ever learn?

The latest examples of that are American and European claims that China is “dumping” on world markets its “subsidized overproduction” of electric vehicles and solar panels. As a result, the U.S. is conducting a sweeping investigation of China’s exports, and the E.U. is following suit.

Apart from that, China is criticized for trading with Russia and refusing to help the Ukraine peace effort on Western terms. China is also taken to task for an alleged lack of support to Israel, and a failure to stop Iran’s retaliation for Israeli destruction of Iranian embassy in Syria that killed Iran’s high-ranking military officials.

Beijing has responded that allegations of “subsidized overproduction” were baseless, and that the West should address issues that led to Ukraine war, Israeli-Palestinian fighting and Iran’s self-defense.

Western wars of words and trade disputes with China will continue, but China’s nuclear arms, and its huge and lucrative markets will not let things go beyond verbal skirmishes.

One can, therefore, safely assume that Southeast Asia and China will remain the brightest spot of world economy for the foreseeable future.

The E.U., by contrast, is an area of economic stagnation. Regrettably, it is also the region of (a) centuries’ old hatreds, (b) confrontation between (arguably) the world’s largest nuclear superpower and the history’s most powerful military alliance, (c) acute and unresolved post-Soviet security issues and (d) reckless and incendiary policies.

Weak productivity and labor force growth have reduced the E.U.’s noninflationary economic growth potential to 1% -- a dismal record that can only be achieved and sustained under exceptional conditions of price stability and treaty determined positions of public finances.

With all that, there is no wonder that some in East Asia are bristling at E.U.’s punching way above its weight in world affairs just because it operates as Washington’s dutiful sidekick.