Moreover, world standing necessarily entails exerting regional influ-
ence. In addition, China seeks to shape a world order that would better
promote its national interests and standing. Such an order, in Beijing’s
view, would be more fair and just than the capitalist world order domi-
nated by the United States, since it would promote peace, harmony
and mutual respect in place of the contradictions the Chinese detect
in global capitalism. China would not stand alone at the apex of this
new world order, but it would, at the very least, be one of a handful of
great powers responsible for maintaining it.
The means of achieving these ends have been difficult to decide
upon. Like all revolutionary regimes, the PRC was in a hurry. Buoyed
by ideological belief in the superiority of a socialist mode of produc-
tion, it attempted first to ‘bypass’ capitalism in the disastrous Great
Leap Forward. When this did not work, Maoist voluntaristic politics
took the place of economics as the basis for an expansion of Chinese
power through revolutionary means. At each stage, China sought
status as the leader of one group of nations (or revolutionary move-
ments) or another, while at the same time seeking to play in the
superpower league of the US and USSR. What Beijing lacked,
however, was power commensurate with its ambitions.
The newly independent countries of Southeast Asia were faced
with the unenviable task of dealing with an erratic China. While some
(Thailand, Burma) drew upon historically grounded international rela-
tions cultures to respond to China, if in different ways, for others
(Indonesia, Malaysia) relations with China contributed to shaping
newly evolving strategic and international relations cultures. For all,
China was a threatening and disruptive presence, to be placated or
kept at arm’s length.
In the 1980s consensus developed among China’s political elite
on the need to lay a firmer foundation for Chinese claims to great
power status. This realisation was forced on China both by the failure
of Maoist policies and by the spiralling pace of scientific and techno-
logical change. China needed to modernise, through the application of
A Short History of China and Southeast Asia