Research on Pathways for Vocational Education Cooperation in Building a China-ASEAN Community with a Shared Future

Driven by the implementation of the *Vision 2030 for China-ASEAN Strategic Partnership* and the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (RCEP), vocational education cooperation has become a crucial pathway in building a China-ASEAN Community with a Shared Future. The theoretical dimension of this pathway lies in the fact that Marx’s concept of the “free association of individuals”, humanistic economics in the new era, and the vision of a global community of shared future together form a theoretical foundation spanning ultimate values, mid-level methodologies, and macro-level strategies. At the practical level, while China-ASEAN vocational education cooperation has achieved significant results in supporting connectivity, cultivating talent, and promoting people-to-people bonds, it also faces structural challenges such as an incomplete benefit-sharing mechanism, insufficient internal drivers for industry-education integration, the digital divide, and systemic disparities. To address these, it is essential to follow a vocational education cooperation pathway characterized by “digital empowerment-institutional innovation-integrated symbiosis-pluralistic co-governance” to build a closer China-ASEAN Community with a Shared Future.