China in East Asia

Abstract

This chapter takes the coalescence that has emerged regarding China as a global player as the basis for discussion of China in the East Asian region. The chapter shows, at present China is speaking to a number of different regional audiences without coherence between the different messages it is trying to present to each one: in Southeast Asia we see China taking a multilateral turn; in relation to the democratic states in Northeast Asia, bilateral and autonomously confident actions are adopted; whereas in the case of North Korea, there seem to be a number of voices feeding into the situation resulting in contradictory actions. The chapter discusses China in East Asia with reference to three groupings in the region, namely: Northeast Asia, Southeast Asia, and North Korea. North Korea is separated from Northeast Asia as it presents distinctive and divergent problems and in many ways does not fit with China's diplomacy towards South Korea and Japan on other issues.