A Short History of China and Southeast Asia

A Short History of China and Southeast Asia

relations with the Cambodians and Lao. In the end, when China’s turn
to the US rekindled Vietnamese fears of Beijing’s real intentions, there
seemed no option but alliance with the Soviet Union, just as for Cam-
bodia there was no option but to look to China. In the mandalaworld
of Southeast Asia, the enemy of one’s neighbour was one’s friend, and
the enmity of Cambodia’s neighbour was unquestioned. By 1972,
enmity and suspicion had replaced the revolutionary friendship
between China and Vietnam, and the Marxist-coloured bilateral rel-
ations regime between the two states had all but broken down.