A Short History of China and Southeast AsiaMore importantly for this study, throughout the period from the
heyday of the Ming through the resurgence of Chinese power during
the early Qing, official relations between China and foreigners,
whether Southeast Asian or European, continued to be conducted in
accordance with the ‘tributary system’—that is, in terms of the
Chinese world order. Envoys from European powers—the Portuguese
in Melaka and Macau, the Spanish in Manila, the Dutch in Batavia
(Jakarta)—were required to meet the same formalities as envoys from
‘tributary’ kingdoms in Southeast Asia. As the Europeans were in no
position to challenge Chinese power until the nineteenth century,
they had no alternative but to acquiesce. Not until the famous British
embassy of Lord Macartney in 1793 did a European envoy refuse to
perform the kowtow of ‘three kneelings and nine prostrations’ that in
Chinese eyes signified submission to the emperor, and so served to
reinforce the Chinese view of the world and their own place in it.
Tribute and trade
After the voyages of Zheng He, Ming foreign relations settled into
what one scholar has characterised as a ‘defensive, passive, and bureau-
cratic mode’.^2 Official justification for the retreat from Yongle’s
expansionist attempt to assert Chinese superiority and power was
couched in the rhetoric of the traditional Chinese worldview, com-
bined with pragmatic economic and political considerations. Court
mandarins argued that the exemplary moral virtue of the emperor and
the superiority of Chinese culture were sufficient to ensure barbarian
submission without the costly use of force. If this did not work, bar-
barians could always be played off against each other. In any case, as
trade was believed to be more important for barbarians than for self-
sufficient China, they would continue to behave as required.
During this period policies towards Southeast Asia reflected those
developed to deal with Central Asia, where instead of welcoming trade,