The Rise of China and the Transformation of Southeast Asia - A preliminary study

The economic rise of China will bring major change to the balance of power both globally and within the region. How will Southeast Asian countries address this seismic change? Broadly, these countries are pursuing two approaches. The first is to engage China to create common norms and rules multilaterally and the second is to balance the rising China with other powers to maintain their freedom of action as much as possible and ensure their interests are not adversely affected by China's rise and the change in the regional order. This paper examines these two approaches - politics of integration and balance-of-power politics - by looking at ASEAN and foreign policies of Thailand, Indonesia, and Myanmar.