China’s suzerainty over Melaka. The example of Ho Quy Ly was
explicitly cited, and the warning was enough to thwart Siamese
attempts to control the straits. An even stronger warning to the
Javanese to settle their civil war, and to pay compensation in gold for
executing Chinese envoys, also made reference to the fate of Annam.
For Southeast Asia, China had previously been as a great but
distant power, one that might take upon itself to offer admonition or
arbitration, but which seldom aggressively interfered in regional
affairs. The voyages of Zheng He brought Chinese power much closer.
Small kingdoms like Melaka and Brunei, that feared being absorbed by
powerful neighbouring mandalas, eagerly sought protection. Medium
polities such as Champa and Cambodia, worried about pressures from
neighbours, looked to China to maintain the status quo. Larger king-
doms such as Vietnam or Ayutthaya, expansionist themselves, resisted
intervention, while promoting trade with China.
The effectiveness of China as arbitrator and protector depended
on its capacity to respond to an appeal from a tributary. After the Viet-
namese invaded Lan Xang in 1479, Lao envoys requested Chinese
assistance. The matter was investigated, and blame placed squarely on
the Vietnamese. China admonished Vietnam, and demanded with-
drawal of its forces on pain of punishment, though by then the
Vietnamese had already retreated. Two years later, reports that
Vietnam was again planning to invade Lan Xang elicited a strongly
worded warning. Meanwhile a Lao request for Chinese forces from
Yunnan to assist them in avenging the Vietnamese invasion was
turned down. The Lao were told that the Chinese emperor regarded
both Lao and Vietnamese as his ‘children’, and that he desired only to
end their enmity, for ‘this is China’s way’. Instead of troops, Chinese
envoys were dispatched to both sides in order to ‘instruct’ them how to
maintain good relations and to care for their people.^15
Eighty years later, when Burmese armies marched east into the
Tai world, Ming power was on the wane and Chinese admonitions
carried less weight. Even so, the possibility of calling upon China as
A Short History of China and Southeast Asia