The countries that make up Southeast Asia are seeing an incredible resurgence in their economic power. Over the past fifty years, their combined wealth has reached the same level as the United Kingdom and, taken together, they are on track to become the fifth-largest world economy. But that stability and success has drawn the attention of the second largest world economy--China. The emerging superpower is increasingly involved in Southeast Asia as part of the ongoing global realignment. As China deepens its influence across the region, the countries of Southeast Asia are negotiating spaces for themselves in order to respond to--or even challenge--China's power. This is the first book to survey China's growing role in Southeast Asia along multiple dimensions. It looks closely and skeptically at the multitude of ways that China has built connections in the region, including through trade, foreign aid, and cultural diplomacy. It incorporates examples such as the operation of Confucius Institutes in Indonesia or the promotion of the concept of guangxi.China's Footprints in Southeast Asia raises the question of whether the Chinese efforts are helpful or disruptive and explores who it is that really stands to benefit from these relationships. The answers differ from country to country, but, as this volume suggests, the footprint of hard and soft power always leaves a lasting mark on other countries' institutions.

The labyrinthine BRI projects, aimed at realizing win-win benefits, have created new challenges for the host countries. Economic aspirations must be shielded and protected by security umbrellas, thus making these countries partners of the China-dominated security architecture. Nowhere is this more evident than in the countries of Sri Lanka and Pakistan. Despite Southeast Asian nations being viewed as within the ambit of China's historical sphere of influence, Myanmar and Thailand provide experiences different from their neighbours. This book analyzes China as an economic juggernaut, undergirded by global ambitions, expanding its economic footprint across South and Southeast Asia through trade, technological supremacy and territorial acquisitions. The authors also navigate China's policies at home and abroad, providing a futuristic perspective on China's path to victory. The book provides answers to compelling questions as:

A timely look at the impact of China's booming emergence on the countries of Southeast Asia Today, Southeast Asia stands uniquely exposed to the waxing power of the new China. Three of its nations border China and five are directly impacted by its claims over the South China Sea. All dwell in the lengthening shadow of its influence: economic, political, military, and cultural. As China seeks to restore its former status as Asia's preeminent power, the countries of Southeast Asia face an increasingly stark choice: flourish within Beijing's orbit or languish outside of it. Meanwhile, as rival powers including the United States take concerted action to curb Chinese ambitions, the region has emerged as an arena of heated strategic competition. Drawing on more than a decade of on-the-ground experience, Sebastian Strangio explores the impacts of China's rise on Southeast Asia, the varied ways in which the countries of the region are responding, and what it might mean for the future balance of power in the Indo-Pacific.

How powerful is China? Is China powerful enough to change the world? This book distinguishes between China's obviously growing economic, political and military resources, and how they are translated into actual influence over other states' choices and policies. It investigates China's influence on the small and weak developing countries in East and South Asia, where China ought to have the biggest influence. It shows that China tends to try togain the support of these countries without forcing them to change their preferences or to act against their own interests, but how much it succeeds is determined more by how these target countries' policy-makers reactand by their domestic political considerations, than by how skilful Chinese politicians or investors are. China's influence even over these weakest states is not easily achieved, suggesting that China has more difficulty exercising its newfound power in the world than we assume.

This book intends to examine the relationship between East Asia and Southeast Asia across three themes: historical perspectives, economic flows of capital and people, and socio-cultural connections. While a substantial number of chapters in the book focus on overseas Chinese (living in Indonesia) and their connections with China and Taiwan historically and contemporarily, they also provide in-depth knowledge of international relationship between East Asia and Southeast Asia.Part One, 'Contending Regional Approaches', consists of four chapters that help readers understand the involvement of East Asia from a historical context. The first chapter on Taiwan before 1975 is followed by a chapter on Taiwan's strategy toward Southeast Asia after the 1980s. The remaining two chapters focus on China-Southeast Asia and Japan-Southeast Asia relations.Part Two, 'Economic Flows of Capital & People', consists of six chapters that mainly examine the flow of capital and people between Indonesia and Taiwan from the colonial period to the present and how this flow changed both societies.Part Three, 'Socio-Cultural Connections', consists of three chapters. This part is a unique contribution to the scholarship that focuses on the transformation of both traditional and popular culture among Southeast Asia, China, and Taiwan by focusing on different agents.

In today's rapid rise and expansion of China's influence all around the world and in ASEAN during the past two decades, there has been an increasing awareness of various countries and regions adjusting themselves to the new trends, both in terms of opportunities and risks alike. This has become necessary due to the rapid changes in many aspects — political landscapes, economic issues, as well as social and cultural considerations. This book, China's Rise in Mainland ASEAN: Regional Evidence and Local Responses, provides timely insights on some of the latest issues pertaining to ASEAN and China, rapidly shifting interactions and upcoming geostrategic challenges.ASEAN can be said to be undergoing a new era, with China becoming more intertwined and involved with the ASEAN region than ever before. The complexity of the regional dynamics means that this phenomenon cannot be captured with a single narrative or discipline of study. In addressing the matters at hand, this book sets out to examine and provide deeper understandings on the regional implications, and local responses from ASEAN countries, and from the perspective of the region as a whole. The underlying rationale is that adequate understanding on the matters involved in this new ASEAN-China era will help to encourage better and mutually beneficial relationships between both sides.The analysis of this book will be categorized into four main themes — (1) 'The Big Picture', concerning China's policies, strategies, and diplomatic stances, (2) 'Implications and Responses', dealing with how ASEAN members react and respond to China's actions and regional influence, (3) 'Perspectives on Trade, Investment and External Debt', which handles the economic facets of the ASEAN-China interactions, and (4) 'Connectivity in Focus', addressing various emerging and existing dimensions of connectivity expansion between ASEAN and China, both physical and virtual.

Why are Southeast Asia's richest countries such as Malaysia riddled with corruption? Why do Myanmar, Thailand and the Philippines harbour unresolved violent insurgencies? How do deepening religious divisions in Indonesia and Malaysia, and China's growing influence, affect the region and the rest of the world? Thought-provoking and eye-opening, Blood and Silk is an accessible, personal look at modern Southeast Asia, written by one of the region's most experienced outside observers. This is a first-hand account of what it's like to sit at the table with deadly Thai Muslim insurgents, mediate between warring clans in the Southern Philippines and console the victims of political violence in Indonesia - all in an effort to negotiate peace, and understand the reasons behind endemic violence.

When American forces arrived in Vietnam, they found themselves embedded in historic village and frontier spaces already shaped by many past conflicts. American bases and bombing targets followed spatial and political logics influenced by the footprints of past wars in central Vietnam. The militarized landscapes here, like many in the world�s historic conflict zones, continue to shape post-war land-use politics. Footprints of War traces the long history of conflict-produced spaces in Vietnam, beginning with early modern wars and the French colonial invasion in 1885 and continuing through the collapse of the Saigon government in 1975. The result is a richly textured history of militarized landscapes that reveals the spatial logic of key battles such as the Tet Offensive. Drawing on extensive archival work and years of interviews and fieldwork in the hills and villages around the city of Hue to illuminate war�s footprints, David Biggs also integrates historical Geographic Information Systems (GIS) data, using aerial, high-altitude, and satellite imagery to render otherwise placeless sites into living, multidimensional spaces. This personal and multilayered approach yields an innovative history of the lasting traces of war in Vietnam and a model for understanding other militarized landscapes.

The most remarkable phenomenon in Asia in the 21st century is arguably the economic rise of China and India. Amazingly, the two most populous countries in the world are uplifting millions of their citizens annually from poverty through rapid economic growth. What is the impact on the region, given the ascendance of China and India? There are at least two possible outcomes: the rise of the two great Asian powers may challenge the US and instill fear among the smaller countries in Asia, or, China and India will act as new economic dynamos that will benefit the region even if US economic presence in the region is to decline in the future. This book explores the opportunities and obstacles to a OC harmoniousOCO region underpinned by the rise of China and India."