From a security perspective, the past decade has witnessed the development of two Southeast Asias. One, centered on the membership of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)-Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, the Philippines, and Thailand-remains an integral part of the international capitalist world economy and is staunchly anticommunist. The other, centering on a Vietnamese-dominated Indochina, looks toward the Soviet-led COMECON for economic succor and political support. The People's Republic of China (PRC) is important to both these Southeast Asias. And in many ways each group relates to the other in terms of its respective perceptions of China's possible roles, capabilities, and intentions as well as assessments of Beijing's allies and adversaries. For some of these states, the PRC is seen as a guarantor and source of support against a hostile Soviet-Vietnamese alliance. For others, China is a future predator, husbanding its strength in order to assert regional hegemony when the time is ripe. This article will examine the major Southeast Asian views of China in hopes of explaining the reasons behind these views and their implications for future relations between the two seemingly irreconcilable Southeast Asian ententes. As we shall see, China symbiotically affects both groups. Reconciliation or conflict for the region will depend extensively on how each group relates to China and, in turn, perceives the PRC to be dealing with the other. Although China is frequently viewed by the West as politically unstable, overpopulated, and an industrial infant, from a Southeast Asian perspective it is a formidable neighbor. Indeed, in a recent study de-