Under the ASEAN-China Study Programme launched in 2003, the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies (ISEAS) organized the ASEAN-China Forum: Realities and Prospects on 23–24 June 2004. From this forum, a book entitled ASEAN-China Relations: Realities and Prospects edited by Saw Swee- Hock, Sheng Lijun and Chin Kin Wah was published in the following year to provide a more permanent source of useful information for a wider audience. Under the same Programme, the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies and the East Asian Institute (EAI) of the National University of Singapore jointly organized the Conference on Southeast Asian Studies in China: Challenges and Prospects on 12–14 January 2006, and a book bearing the title Southeast Asian Studies in China edited by Saw Swee-Hock and John Wong was published jointly by the two institutions in late 2006.

The third event under the ASEAN-China Study Programme was the ASEAN-China Economic Forum: Economic Cooperation and Challenges Ahead on 20–21 April 2006. This forum was designed to evaluate the present status, challenges and prospects with regard to the economic linkages and cooperation between ASEAN and China. This book on ASEAN-China Economic Relations incorporates not only the revised version of the conference papers in eleven separate chapters, but also four specially commissioned chapters appearing as Chapters 1, 6, 8, and 12 to provide a greater insight into the dynamics of the economic relations between ASEAN and China. The book discusses the economic relations in terms of many important topics such as trade, the ASEAN-China Free Trade Agreement (ACFTA), investments, services trade, energy cooperation, cooperation in developing the Mekong sub-region, China's aid to Southeast Asian countries, developing stronger business networks, and the political dimensions of China's economic relations with ASEAN. The book, with contributions from specialists intimately familiar with their topics, will be useful to businessmen, analysts, academics, students and policy-makers.