"An ASEAN + 3 free-trade zone is something far, far off and not in the foreseeable future," says Chen, a longtime observer of political and economic trends in East Asia. He believes that this is not simply due to Sino-Japanese diplomatic rivalry. The two nations are at much different stages of economic development, and free trade between them is not in either country's best interest.
「『東協加 3』要形成為自由貿易區，仍遙遙無期，」長期觀察東亞政經情勢的淡江大學學者陳鴻瑜認為，除了一山不容二虎（中、日）外，兩國的經濟發展落差巨大，自由貿易也不符合彼此的利益。