China and Asean have put in place a free trade agreement and a US $10 billion investment fund, but disputes over the Mekong River and the South China Sea remain... "The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) has often been sidelined by bilateral dealings between China and Asean member-states. But on Jan. 1, the organization scored a major victory when the free trade agreement (FTA) between China and Asean came into effect. The FTA was a logical follow-up to the facts on the ground: trade between the two sides more than quadrupled between 2001 and 2009, from US $41.6 billion to $213 billion. With the FTA in place, trade between China and Asean is expected to surpass that between the US and Asean by the end of 2012..."