China And Her Neighbours

For centuries, China was confident in its role as the 'Middle Kingdom', the undisputed cultural, economic and political powerhouse of Asia. Today, with China once again a leading player on the world stage, countries across the continent are facing an uncertain future. Does China's rise threaten its neighbours? And what, ultimately, is its end goal? Nowhere are these questions more pressing than in the Pacific, where China's maritime neighbours find themselves directly in the path of the country's expanding territorial claims. In this rich historical exploration, Michael Tai finds answers to these and other questions through an in-depth exploration of China's past. Spanning thousands of years of Chinese and Asian history, China and Her Neighbours looks at China's evolving relations with Japan, Vietnam, the Philippines, and Malaysia. While the disputes in the Pacific have attracted widespread attention, very few investigations have considered the wider historical context of these tensions.

China had attracted global attention in the recent past by becoming one of the decisive actors in Asia and beyond. It is the largest country in Asia and bordering the largest number of Asian countries, with the largest population, permanent membership in the United Nations Security Council and a recognised nuclear weapon state. Its geographical position in Asia provides it with unique privileges. It borders fourteen of the other 42 countries in Asia and others by land and with several other countries in maritime dimensions. China's emergence as a third largest economy in the world after the United States and Japan in 2008 is providing opportunities as well as challenges. Hence, its political/border interactions with these nearly half of the Asian states are crucial in explaining inter-state dynamics in the region. China's formulation of policies, their execution and implementation would be crucial for a number of states in Asia. The neighbouring countries' responses to these policies would also be crucial for China as well in evaluating the successes or failures of its adjustment with the neighbourhood. This book provides valuable insights on these issues, not only from India's point of view, but also from the point of view of Japan. The research and analysis has been assembled by renowned scholars from both countries and is of value to the academics, specialists, policy analysts, think tanks and all interested in studying the geo-strategic significance of China today.

"At a time when China–Southeast Asia relationships are undergoing profound changes, it is pleasing to have a volume which examines the interactions between China and the polities and societies to the south through time. With multiple aims of exploring the relations between northern Chinese cultures and those of the south, examining the cultural plurality of areas which are today parts of Southern China, and illuminating the relations between Sinitic and non-Sinitic societies, the volume is broad in concept and content. Within these extensive rubrics, this edited collection further interrogates the nature of Asian polities and their historiography, the constitution of Chineseness, imperial China’s southern expansions, cultural hybridity, economic relations, regional systems and ethnic interactions across East Asia. The editors Victor H. Mair and Liam C. Kelley are to be congratulated for bringing together such a wealth of contributions offering nascent interpretations and broad overviews, set within the overarching historical and contemporary contexts provided through Wang Gungwu’s introduction." -- Dr Geoffrey Wade, ANU College of Asia and the Pacific, Australian National University

China shares borders with 20 other countries. Each of these neighbors has its own national interests, and in some cases, these include territorial and maritime jurisdictional claims in places that China also claims. Most of these 20 countries have had a history of border conflicts with China; some of them never amicably settled. This book brings together some of the foremost historians, geographers, political scientists, and legal scholars on modern Asia to examine each of China's twenty land or sea borders.