Summary
The 21st century witnesses the transformation of a new regional political landscape in the Asia-Pacific. While the United States continues to dominate the region, its influence has been in decline. With an ailing economy and a change in administration, the United States may be looking inward in the near future to tend to domestic challenges. China, on the other hand, is rising with a rapidly expanding economy and increasing influence regionally as well as globally. The impact of China, positive or otherwise, remains to be seen. Japan, in the meantime, resurges and is vigorously engaging the region to protect its economic interests. The active engagement of the two Asian powers in the region may bring about far-reaching consequences. India is also emerging and has been looking eastward for strategic opportunities. With the active engagement of India, Asia will be transformed and can contribute significantly to the world. Among the key political actors in the Asia-Pacific region, the rising China may be the most uncertain and also the most unpredictable.
The states in Southeast Asia, small- as well as medium-sized, have realized that the rise of China has implications for stability and prosperity in the region. Although they may agree on the salience of the issue, they seem to be diverse in their approaches and policies. This paper attempts to look into Thailand’s policy toward China by tracing the bilateral relations since the establishment of diplomatic ties in 1975, its shifts during the Cambodian crisis in the 1980s as well as the economic partnership in the 1990s. This paper argues that Thai policymakers, perceiving China in the 21st century as more of an opportunity than a risk, pursue the policy of strategic engagement in order to broaden and deepen the close relationship
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