Abstract
In this article, we highlight the historical nature and context of anti- Chinese sentiments in Southeast Asia. Moreover, while facing similar structural realities,1 these nations have historically shown varying degrees of antagonism toward regional great powers, such as Japan in the early twentieth century and China in the twenty-first century.2 An in-depth analysis of the region’s historical experiences with—and the nature of domestic politicization of—such great-power relations finds important but previously underexamined variations in the type of anti-great-power sentiments and the degree to which they are politically salient among Southeast Asia nations. We argue that there is greater continuity than change in existing relations with China and suggest that China’s rise does not constitute a fundamental structural change from a longer historical perspective. Perhaps more importantly, our survey of Southeast Asian perceptions of the great powers in both historical and contemporary contexts indicates that despite the dominant role played by regional great powers—including colonial Japan and a reemerging China—there are significant variations in the level of antagonism toward China and Japan.
The question is: what explains the variations in anti-great-power attitudes in Southeast Asia? Why do we see more or less politicization of anti- Chinese or anti-Japanese sentiments? We find that stances both for and against Japan or China are not obvious, nor are they driven solely by current strategic and economic circumstances. They are influenced by the trajectory of historical experiences, by prior framing of the colonial period, and by the Cold War era. Examining anti-Japanese and anti-Chinese sentiment in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) region in the past several decades, we show that the varying degrees of intensity in oppositional sentiments are determined by two dimensions: the nature of the great-power-dependent historical experience and the degree to which it has been politicized in the postwar period.
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