Beijing - China's leadership should step back from its foreign policy of non-alliance and take the lead in forging an economic, political and defense union in East and Southeast Asia, said a leading researcher.

Xu Hongcai, senior researcher of the China Centre for International Economic Exchanges, believes such a union, together with the United States and the European Union, could become a force in the evolving tri-polar global order.

"My proposal may conflict with our government's foreign policy of non-alliance, but I think my country's leadership needs a theoretical breakthrough amid the new global circumstances," said Xu, who released his five-page proposal exclusively to China Daily.