In the past 25 years, China-Japan-Korea cooperation has been continuously carried out, forming a cooperation framework centered on leaders' meetings, supported by ministerial meetings and senior officials' meetings, and bolstered by over 70 working-level institutions. After over four years of hiatus, this multinational meeting has been restarted, marking a new stage in the cooperative relationship among these three major Asian economies. Since beginning to cooperate during the 1997 Asian financial crisis, China, Japan, and Korea held their first independent meeting outside the ASEAN+3 framework in 2008 and have since held eight top-level meetings up until 2019.

These series of meetings play a pivotal role not only at the political and strategic level but also in strengthening economic exchanges and cooperation between the three countries. An authoritative figure from the National Economists Club of Japan stated that the resumption of the meetings sends a positive signal, indicating the three countries' willingness to strengthen cooperation, which will promote stability and peaceful development in the entire East Asia and Northeast Asia regions. Similarly, an expert from the Graduate School of Science and Technology Policy in Seoul, Korea, expressed positive expectations for China-Japan-Korea cooperation and emphasized that interaction and communication among the three countries are key to successful cooperation.

Recently, Chinese Premier Li Qiang visited South Korea and attended the ninth China-Japan-Korea Leaders’ Meeting, where the main topic of discussion involved further advancing comprehensive cooperation among the three countries. During the meeting, reaffirmation of mutual understandings is expected, especially those strategic guidelines and action plans aimed at promoting regional economic integration and deepening economic, trade, and scientific cooperation. Experts note that enhancing interaction among the three countries in various fields can bring new momentum and broader development opportunities to the partnership. Areas like elderly care, wellness and health care, and corporate technical cooperation offer broad prospects and opportunities for collaboration.

In recent years, China-Japan and China-Korea relations have encountered some setbacks in trade, resulting in a decline in trade volume. Facing the challenges, how to boost exchanges through further corporate cooperation and more convenient people-to-people exchanges has become a topic of interest.

Huang Fei emphasized that diverse cultural and educational activities, as well as frequent interpersonal exchanges, are crucial for enhancing understanding and trust among the peoples of the three countries, which is also the social foundation for building stable, healthy, and friendly cooperative relations among the three countries.

Huang Fei mentioned that South Korea's trade deficit with China is the largest in 31 years, meaning that its imports from China far exceed its exports to China. To promote common development among the three countries, division of labor in economic, trade, and industrial cooperation is particularly important, benefitting both sides for a mutually advantageous win-win situation.

Scholars also pointed out that the holding of such international conferences has a positive impact on the stability of the Northeast Asia region. Huang Fei believes that regional peace is the foundation for development, and achieving this goal is inseparable from the joint efforts and promotion of the three countries of China, Japan, and Korea.

The negotiations for the China-Japan-Korea Free Trade Agreement have always been a focal point of attention in the tripartite cooperation. According to publicly available information, the trade ministers of the three countries officially launched the Free Trade Area negotiations at the East Asian Leaders series of meetings held in Phnom Penh in November 2012. The first round of negotiations took place in March 2013, and up to now, 16 rounds have been concluded. Shu Juting, the spokesperson for the Ministry of Commerce, has expressed that China hopes to work with Japan and Korea to push for an early resumption of the negotiations, placing high hopes on this, and contributing to the stable recovery of regional and even the global economy.

Shu Juting added that China, Japan, and Korea are closely linked in industry, with strong economic complementarity. Once the Free Trade Agreement among the three countries is reached, it will further expand market opening, reduce trade barriers, and promote trade investment based on the existing cooperation, bringing tangible benefits to businesses and people in the three places.

In discussing the future prospects of the China-Japan-Korea Free Trade negotiations, Chen Zilei pointed out that the successful convening of the leaders' meeting provides a good opportunity for the resumption of the Free Trade Agreement negotiations, and he is full of expectations. Chen Zilei analyzed that considering the geographical position and global manufacturing status, the combined GDP of the three countries could even compete with that of the United States and the European Union. However, due to the current domestic economic difficulties faced by Japan and Korea, such as insufficient demand and inflation issues, this also gives China more momentum to cooperate.

Huang Fei believes that despite the seemingly competitive manufacturing industry among China, Japan, and Korea, the potential for cooperation is actually enormous. He noted that cooperation isn't just about end products, the whole industrial chain is filled with opportunities. Huang Fei also stated that China and Korea each have their own strengths in different manufacturing sectors, and through cooperation, they can achieve joint cost optimization and an increase in international capabilities.

Huang Fei also mentioned that China, Japan, and Korea all face issues of an aging population and declining birthrates, and the three countries can seek common strategies through government and civil discussions and learnings. Among them, Japan has more precious experience due to facing this issue earlier.

In order to explore this topic of common concern and promote exchanges among one another, this action is crucial to the future development direction of East Asia. Chen Zilei emphasized that according to the established plans, once the dialogue mechanism of the three leaders is initiated, it will further promote consultations and communications among high-level government officials. In addition, the relevant departments will also carry out their respective cooperation and consultations under this framework.

At the same time, enterprises and the business community of the three countries will also carry out detailed consultations and exchanges on specific cooperation matters through bilateral and multilateral meetings. With the leaders' meeting, which employs top-level design as the core, the depth and breadth of tripartite cooperation continue to expand, and looking forward to the future of cooperation among China, Japan, and Korea, the possibilities are endless.