The much-expected birth of the China-ASEAN Free Trade Area (CAFTA) would be a celebration of the pursuit for common prosperity over adversity, friendly cooperation over animosity, and trade liberalization over protectionism.

As leaders from China and Southeast Asia meet this week, final preparations are polished for CAFTA to enter into formal operation on Jan 1, 2010, when 90 percent of goods will cross borders at zero tariff, and services and investments at nation-treatment status. It forms the world's largest free trade area, at least in the population measure. The area integrates a market with 1.9 billion people and trade volume of $4,500 billion, grouping China with Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

The birth of CAFTA is the fruit of true international friendship. Faltering out of the 1997 Asian financial crisis, ASEAN economies were relieved to find a firm and helping hand in China, which sacrificed its own interests in stabilizing renminbi and helping to bail them out. The proposal of a free trade area by then Chinese premier Zhu Rongji rose naturally from economic cooperation and coincided with ASEAN's dream first inked in the 1976 Bali Concord.