China and southeast Asia in the 2000s: Tension management in the maritime space
| DOI | 10.1177/1369148120980944 |
| Author | Zha Daojiong,Lina Gong |
| Date | 01 May 2021 |
| Published date | 01 May 2021 |
| Subject Matter | Special Issue: Chinese foreign policy: A Xi change? |
https://doi.org/10.1177/1369148120980944
The British Journal of Politics and
International Relations
2021, Vol. 23(2) 248 –261
© The Author(s) 2021
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DOI: 10.1177/1369148120980944
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China and southeast Asia in the
2000s: Tension management in
the maritime space
Zha Daojiong1 and Lina Gong2
Abstract
Viewed through the standard prisms of international politics, escalation of security tensions is the
definitive feature in the evolution of relations between China and Southeast Asia over the last
decade. Disagreements over territorial ownership of and rights to the South China Sea sharpened
and arguably became the defining feature of regional geopolitics. Yet, China and Southeast Asia
have also managed to prove predictions of fateful conflict to be premature. In this article, we study
Chinese and Southeast Asian strands of security discourse, which provide political and diplomatic
cover for cooperative interaction in parallel with little or no compromise on security principles.
Then we select interactions between China and the Philippines and China and Vietnam as cases
to illustrate our observations. We conclude by postulating that, at least in the maritime space,
tension management rather than conflict resolution is more likely to be the continuing feature
into the future.
Keywords
China’s foreign policy, China-Southeast Asia relations, maritime silk road, non-traditional
security, South China Sea, Southeast Asia
Introduction
Indications of President Xi Jinping’s intention for China’s relations with Southeast Asia
can be seen in his foreign travel itinerary as the country’s vice president under former
President Hu Jintao. Xi travelled to Phnom Penh and Yangon in December 2009, after
stops in Tokyo and Seoul, along the same mental map of priority. By way of contrast, also
as vice president, he did not travel to Russia, a key foreign policy partner of China, until
March 2010. After assuming full presidency of his country, Xi convened a high-level
meeting that focused on improving the country’s diplomacy with its neighbouring coun-
tries. The meeting highlighted ‘the strategic significance of neighbouring countries to
China’ that goes ‘beyond time and space’. The meeting also officially presented China’s
1 School of International Studies, Institute of South-South Cooperation and Development, Peking University,
Beijing, China
2S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
Corresponding author:
Lina Gong, S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, 50 Nanyang Avenue, Block S4, Level B3, Singapore
639798, Singapore.
Email: islinagong@ntu.edu.sg
980944BPI0010.1177/1369148120980944The British Journal of Politics and International RelationsZha and Gong
research-article2021
Special Issue Article
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