China should play a more active and open role in advancing the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, or RCEP, to fasten the pace of the pact, while the United States is actively pushing forward the Trans-Pacific Partnership in the region, experts said.

"China may not be the leader in advancing the RCEP progress, but should play a more active role, especially in setting the issues, and present a more open stance so as to speed up the talks," said Shen Minghui, a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences' Institute of Asia-Pacific Studies.

Zhang Jianping, a researcher from the Institute for International Economic Research of the National Development and Reform Commission, agreed and said that China should support the leading role of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.