The relations between the societies and states of Southeast Asia and China have been of enormous significance to both these regions, extending back for literally thousands of years. This useful single-valume edition of key studies on Southeast Asia-China interactions, which were first published in the 'Journal of the Malaysian Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society' (and its precursors), includes classics such as Wang Gungwu's 'The Nanhai Trade' and Paul Wheatley's 'Geographical Notes On Some Commodities Involved in Sung Maritime Trade'. In this compedium, 18 studies examine political, economic, and social interaction as well as the flows of people and technologies which have tied these regions together over the period.

Will the nations of Southeast Asia maintain their strategic autonomy, or are they destined to become a subservient periphery of China? 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? “This rich collection,” writes renowned author-journalist Nayan Chanda, answers these and other questions while offering “fresh insights” and “new information and analyses” to explain Southeast Asia’s relations with China.

China’s rise and stepped-up involvement in Southeast Asia have prompted a blend of anticipation and unease among its smaller neighbors. The stunning growth of China has yanked up the region’s economies, but its militarization of the South China Sea and dam building on the Mekong River has nations wary about Beijing’s outsized ambitions. Southeast Asians long felt relatively secure, relying on the United States as a security hedge, but that confidence began to slip after the Trump administration launched a trade war with China and questioned the usefulness of traditional alliances. This compelling book provides a snapshot of ten countries in Southeast Asia by exploring their diverse experiences with China and how this impacts their perceptions of Beijing’s actions and its long-term political, economic, military, and “soft power” goals in the region.

This book aims to examine the multiple effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on China-Southeast Asia relations from both Chinese and Southeast Asian perspectives. It invites many officials and scholars from the leading think-tanks and famous universities in China and Southeast Asian states to contribute and tries to reveal how has China-Southeast Asia relations been reshaping during/after the COVID-19 pandemic and discuss what kind of measures could be taken to push forward China-Southeast Asia relations and thus ensuring the peace and prosperity in the region. The main content of this book is divided into 10 parts, in which the first chapter briefly introduces the COVID-19 situation in China and Southeast Asia, China’s anti-COVID efforts, and the impacts of the COVID-19 on China-Southeast Asia relations from Chinese and Southeast Asian perspectives. Chapter 2 examines the dual influence of the pandemic on the construction of China-ASEAN community of a shared future and gave some useful policy recommendations on improving China-Southeast Asia relations. The following 8 chapters go deep into the Southeast Asian states’ response to COVID-19 and the economic, political and social effects of the COVID-19 on Southeast Asia–China relations, and look forward the future development of such relations. In addition, it also analyzes Southeast states’ reactions to the intense Sino-US power rivalry during/after the COVID-19 pandemic. This book is probably the first comprehensive study that investigates the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on China–Southeast Asia relations from both Chinese and Southeast Asian perspectives. It would not only open up a new area of study on China and Southeast Asia relations, but provide insightful observations and useful information for governments, companies and social organizations to facilitate cooperation in trade and investment, public health, and people-to-people exchanges. Therefore, the intended readership not only includes the academics but also officials, businessmen, journalists and social activists. The most important feature of this book is that it points out China–Southeast Asia relations would be reshaped by COVID-19 in the long run and analyzes how it would be reshaped. It also shows a well-balanced view on the COVID-19 and China–Southeast Asia relations as both university scholars, think-tank experts and government officials are involved in this book.

"Connecting" and "distancing" have been two prominent themes permeating the writings on the historical and contemporary developments of the relationship between Southeast Asia and China. As neighbours, the nation-states in Southeast Asia and the giant political entity in the north communicated with each other through a variety of diplomatic overtures, political agitations, and cultural nuances. In the last two decades with the rise of China as an economic powerhouse in the region, Southeast Asia's need to connect with China has become more urgent and necessary as it attempts to reap the benefit from the successful economic modernization in China. At the same time, however, there were feelings of ambivalence, hesitation and even suspicions on the part of the Southeast Asian states vis-a-vis the rise of a political power which is so less understood or misunderstood. The contributors of this volume are authors of various disciplinary backgrounds: history, political science, economics and sociology. They provide a spectrum of perspectives by which the readers can view Sino-Southeast Asia relations.

The argument rests on developments such as the introduction of firearms, more intensive rice agriculture, Thai and Viet ceramic exports, Korean and Ryukyu contacts with Southeast Asia, the demise of Champa, the climax of Viet and northern Tai statecraft, the birth of Melayu-Muslim kingship in Melaka and the creation of a new Muslim Javanese civilisation on Java's north coast. Coincident with these changes, Ming China's engagement with Sourtheast Asia grew as a result of overland expansion into the Tai and Viet polities, state-sponsored maritime voyages, and private Chinese trade and migration to the region. --

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.

The relations between ASEAN and China occupy a unique and important position in the foreign relations of the Asia-Pacific region. This volume investigates the impacts of global changes and regional challenges confronting the contemporary developments of China-ASEAN relations.

Spanning over a millennium of history, this book seeks to describe and define the evolution of the China–Southeast Asia nexus and the interactions which have shaped their shared pasts. Examining the relationships which have proven integral to connecting Northeast and Southeast Asia with other parts of the world, the contributors of the volume provide a wide-ranging historical context to changing relations in the region today – perhaps one of the most intense re-orderings occurring anywhere in the world. From maritime trading relations and political interactions to overland Chinese expansion and commerce in Southeast Asia, this book reveals rarely explored connections across the China–Southeast Asia interface. In so doing, it transcends existing area studies boundaries to present an invaluable new perspective to the field. A major contribution to the study of Asian economic and cultural interactions, this book will appeal to students and scholars of Chinese history, as well as those engaged with Southeast Asia.

The recent uncertainties over the South China Sea have become one major issue in the relations between China and Southeast Asian countries. The South China Sea issue, however, is countered by the deepening economic integration between China and Southeast Asia, which is likely to continue should China's proposal for a 21st Century Maritime Silk Road is agreed and implemented. Yet the success or not of this proposal depends also on the interactions in the political-security sphere between both sides.Southeast Asia and China: A Contest in Mutual Socialization brings together experts from different disciplines to illuminate on the complex political, economic and normative interactions between China and the Southeast Asian countries. This book analyses key issues including the national identity discourse of China as a Great Power, China's civil-military interactions in its strategy in the South China Sea dispute, the different kinds of political and strategic strategies used by Southeast Asian countries in countering China, the past patterns and present trajectories of economic ties between China and Southeast Asian countries, as well as the strategic implications of China's 21st Century Maritime Silk Road initiative.