The deer and the dragon

Description

"Southeast Asia is arguably the most diverse region in the world. Accordingly, rather than addressing one list of questions, the contributors to this volume have-as experts on Southeast Asia-China relations-explored the matters they see as most important and most deserving of exploration and exposure. After the editor's introduction, the chapters proceed in pairs. Each pair and a closing chapter cover a distinctive theme in Southeast Asia's interactions with China. Featured among the historical and economic contexts needed to understand the interactions are security and development as Chinese goals and how diversified beyond China Southeast Asia's trading partners are. Southeast Asian and Chinese perceptions of each other are examined using survey research and by asking whether China views the region as its "strategic backyard." Two actual or intended expansions are analyzed: expanded Chinese sovereignty over the South China Sea and Beijing's interest in using "overseas Chinese" to expand its influence in the region. The chapters on strategies lay out the very different ways of approaching China preferred by Singapore and Indonesia. Rather than documenting the obvious inequalities of size and power between China on the one hand and Cambodia and Laos on the other, the essays on disparities show how relations with China interact with asymmetries inside these two states. Policy implications of differing distances are drawn in the pieces on how Southeast Asia's proximity to China affects the prospect of Chinese regional dominance as compared with far-off America's role and as seen through the lens of Beijing's far-flung Maritime Silk Road. A final chapter on a seventh theme features a Myanmar analyst's retrospection on myths and illusions that have arisen to cloud how that country's relations with China are interpreted, with possible implications for understanding Sino-Southeast Asian dealings with China more broadly"--

Description

This book's expert authors address this pressing question in multiple contexts. What clues to the future lie in the modern history of Sino-Southeast Asian relations? How economically dependent on China has the region already become? What do Southeast Asians think of China? Does Beijing view the region in proprietary terms as its own backyard? How has the relative absence, distance, and indifference of the United States affected the balance of influence between the US and China in Southeast Asia? The book also explores China's moves and Southeast Asia's responses to them. Does China's Maritime Silk Road through Southeast Asia herald a Pax Sinica across the region? How should China's expansionary acts in the South China Sea be understood? How have Southeast Asian states such as Vietnam and the Philippines responded? How does Singapore's China strategy compare with Indonesia's? How relevant is the Association of Southeast Asian Nations? To what extent has China tried to persuade the "overseas Chinese" in Southeast Asia to identify with "the motherland" and support its aims? How are China's deep involvements in Cambodia and Laos affecting the economies and policies of those countries?

Subjects

Other Editions

• Deer and the Dragon: Southeast Asia and China in the 21st CenturyShorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center, Walter H.2020-01-01
• The deer and the dragonISEAS Publishing2020
• Deer and the DragonShorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center, Walter H.2020-01-01