Paper Title
Examining Great Power and Rising Power Status: China’s Trade Relations With Asean

Abstract
The rise of China in the recent times has caused a great debate about the pivot shifting to Asia. In such a scenario Asia shall become a theatre to power struggles between rising powers coupled with the presence of external powers such as USA. The power struggle can be analysed through economics—a tool to showcase power, exemplified in China’s case. Power balancing cannot be understood through individual states alone. Asia is also home to multilateral regional and sub-regional organisations, of which ASEAN is one. The paper would hence try to draw a corollary between great power ‘status’, what it entails and how a rising power would seek to become a great power. The paper will try to draw this corollary by using economic relations, trade in specific as variable. The paper utilises a politico-economic approach located in the discipline of international relations (IR). Due to rise in multilateralism, the paper will analyse the trade relations between China-ASEAN. Through this analysis the paper will ultimately try to answer the research question-how does trade with a multilateral regional organisation affect the status of a nation in the international system? Keywords- China, ASEAN, Great Power, Rising Power, Trade, Multilateralism.