The spectacular rise of China over the past four decades has brought the world unprecedented opportunities and challenges, but no region has experienced this new geopolitical reality more keenly than South-East Asia. The 11 regional countries have benefited enormously from China’s economic rise, but they are also the first to feel the pounding movements of the awakening giant.
Sebastian Strangio’s In the Dragon’s Shadow: Southeast Asia in the Chinese Century offers an insightful account of how China’s rise has shaped the region’s economic and strategic landscape, as well as the way China’s smaller neighbours have struggled to deal with the emerging superpower. Each of these 11 nations faces similar challenges in dealing with China, yet, as Strangio writes, ‘no two countries approach China in quite the same way’. The different approaches are informed by their different historical experiences and different perceptions of the threats and opportunities brought about by China’s rise.
Among the nine countries examined in the book (Brunei and East Timor are excluded), Vietnam is the most China-wary, while Cambodia is the most pro-China. Vietnam has benefited economically from the rise of China, which is now its largest trading partner and source of imports, but the country’s bitter historical experience of repeated invasions and the boiling South China Sea dispute have made Vietnam constantly wary of China’s growing influence.
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