The Deer and the Dragon

Will the nations of Southeast Asia maintain their strategic autonomy, or are they destined to become a subservient periphery of China? This books 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 Chinas moves and Southeast Asias responses to them. Does Chinas Maritime Silk Road through Southeast Asia herald a Pax Sinica across the region? How should Chinas expansionary acts in the South China Sea be understood? How have Southeast Asian states such as Vietnam and the Philippines responded? How does Singapores China strategy compare with Indonesias? 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 Chinas 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 Asias relations with China.