The Weight of the Past in China’s Relations with Its Asian Neighbors

Historically, regional power shifts have tended to be messy affairs. Such changes often produced not only wars, but long, drawn-out forms of conflict that devastated the regions in which they occurred. With the exception of the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union, none of these power-shift conflicts have yet been truly global, and it is unlikely that the rivalry between the United States and China will spill over into a global confrontation any time soon. The chapter provides an overview of two of the key conflict areas within East Asia, notably Korea and Southeast Asia, mainly from a Chinese perspective, and it indicates how a better understanding of the international history of the region can help with measuring the framework for current rivalries. It also suggests key issues for consideration in terms of how the potential for great power conflict can be reduced.

China · Cold war · Development economics · East Asia · Economics · Economy · Geography · Great power · International relations · Perspective (graphical) · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Power (physics) · Rivalry · Sociology · Soviet union · Asian Geopolitics and Ethnography · International Relations and Foreign Policy · Korean Peninsula Historical and Political Studies · Law