East of India, south of China: Sino-Indian encounters in southeast Asia

Abstract

Nowhere are the dynamics of geopolitical competition between the major powers of the Indo-Pacific clearer than in south-east Asia. It is there that Beijing is experimenting with both sticks—military threats and economic sanctions—and carrots—lavish promises of investment and quieter pledges of political backing for existing and budding authoritarians. It is there too that American allies are openly questioning the extent of Washington’s commitment to their security, unsettled by its tepid response to China’s creeping militarization of features in the South China Sea, the uneven implementation of the so-called ‘pivot’ and the recent abandonment of the Trans-Pacific Partnership by the Trump administration. It is also in south-east Asia that other significant players—including Australia, India, Japan, South Korea and Taiwan, and even extra-regional powers like France and the United Kingdom—are assuming bigger and changing roles, as security partners, loan providers or diplomatic props