Shortly after acceding to the leadership of the People’s Republic of China in 2012, Xi Jinping promised to lead a “great rejuvenation” of the Chinese nation an. In the years since, he has tightened control at home, reasserting the position of the Chinese Communist Party at the commanding heights of the country’s politics and economy. He has also become more belligerent abroad, seeking to recapture China’s former status of primacy in East Asia, and expunge all memory of past humiliations at the hands of the Western powers and imperial Japan.
From the Mekong River to the South China Sea, the eleven nations of Southeast Asia stand uniquely exposed to waxing power and vaunting ambition of Xi’s China. Three share land borders with China, while five are directly impacted by its maritime and territorial claims in the South China Sea. All dwell in the lengthening shadow of its influence: economic, political, military, and cultural.
As rival powers including the United States take increasingly assertive actions to contain Beijing and curb its ambitions, setting off fears of a new Cold War pitting Xi’s authoritarian superpower against the democracies of the West, Southeast Asia has once again emerged as an arena of heated strategic, economic, and ideological competition. Join us for a discussion on the dynamics of China’s expanding influence in Southeast Asia and how the various nations of the region are responding to its rise—an issue with far-reaching ramifications for the future balance of power in the Indo-Pacific.