number of instruments to deal with international relations, trade and
security, meant that it became a significant player in China’s relations
with the region. China’s attitude towards ASEAN had been changing
since the early 1980s, from ideological condemnation to pragmatic
acceptance to ‘friendship and cooperation’. At its own request, the
PRC became one of ASEAN’s ‘dialogue partners’ and a member of
the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) for the discussion of security
issues. In doing so, China went some way towards committing itself
to dealing with Southeast Asia in the ‘ASEAN way’.
The ‘ASEAN way’ refers to the form and principles of inter-
action between states developed by members of ASEAN since the
founding of the organisation. As the preferred way of conducting
relations between states, it is characterised by informality, the non-
confrontational search for consensus through consultation, sensitivity
to the views of others, and flexibility. This has produced what one
commentator has called a ‘regional security culture’^14 that both rests on
widely held traditional Southeast Asian cultural values (including a
sense of belonging together and respect for seniority), and reflects the
‘process of interaction’ that has grown up in ASEAN. That the
‘ASEAN way’ became generally accepted owed much to Indonesian
leadership and to President Suharto’s Javanese values and style. The
‘five principles of peaceful coexistence’ were enshrined as the basis for
consensus (which does not necessarily mean unanimity), between par-
ticipants in a region confronted far more than Europe by the need to
manage diversity.
ASEAN has been reluctant to move towards formulating a
common position on either international relations or regional security,
however. There are various reasons for this. One is that this would
seem to be too limiting and inflexible. Several states within ASEAN
still face bilateral tensions, which must be bilaterally resolved. A more
important reason is ASEAN’s reluctance to antagonise Beijing by
presenting a common front that could be construed as an alliance to
contain or ‘constrain’ China.^15 ASEAN policy is to ‘engage’ China by
Fresh beginnings