Chapter 4 Southeast Asia

India is the largest and powerful country in the South Asian region and plays a major role in keeping diplomatic relations within the region because its culture appreciates in its immediate neighborhood. At the same time China as a major power plays another important role in keeping diplomatic relations within the South Asian region because its foreign policy and national interest is merely focused upon peaceful rise among all regions. Therefore these two countries use soft power tools rather than hard power tools to maintain the status quo in South Asia. Basically the researcher is expected to find out the impact of their soft power usage on the maintenance of status quo in the South Asia. Thus the researcher has focused to identify the national interest and soft power tools used by India and China and to determine the successes, failures and the impact of soft power usage on the maintenance of the status quo in South Asia as the objectives of this research. And the researcher plan to do a qualitative research study by collecting secondary data from books, magazines, journals, newspaper articles, videos, annual reports, surveys and researches conducted by national international institutions and online sources in the web to develop the importance of the whole analysis. Through the content analysis it can be identified that China is at first when implementing soft power tools rather than the India because all the soft power tools implements by China are very strong and attractive. At the same time there are both good and bad impact on South Asian countries. Finally the researcher can come to a conclusion that India and China have utilized soft power tools to spread their hegemony over the South Asian region. Key words: Soft power, national interest, hegemony, foreign policy, status quo, diplomatic relations

Issues & Studies, 2007

2020

Soft power is often praised by leaders and policymakers for its non-coercive nature and supposed limited costs, but it is also downplayed due to the difficulties in detecting its 'fuzzy' outcomes. These critiques will be addressed by developing a methodology to assess soft power dynamics of influence and attraction in circumscribed environments. The purpose of this study is to contribute to the debate on how soft power resources convert into outcomes through the observation of the efforts of two competing East Asian powers in Southeast Asia. China has been investing heavily in its 'charm offensives' but with limited results, it seems. Japan has been labeled a 'soft power superpower' but there have been doubts regarding its power conversion capabilities. The first part identifies their main objectives, resources, and strategies. The second part investigates the reception of the target audiences in selected 'soft power battlegrounds' in the region. The final part merges and juxtaposes the preliminary findings while evaluating the respective strategies of influence and attraction. The significance of this research lies in developing a soft power assessment framework to better evaluate what works under what conditions while also further exploring the link between soft and economic power.

Contemporary Southeast Asia: The Politics of Change, Contestation, and Adaptation, 3rd Edition, 2018

International Journal of Asian Studies 17(2), 2020

At the time of this review, written during the COVID-19 pandemic crisis of 2020, one may suggest ahistorical turning point in the role of China as a global power. While the Trump administration' s America First policy has caused the United States to distance itself from the world, China under Xi Jinping is providing assistance to other countries. Could this be a signal that we should consider a future where China will replace America as the new world power? To assess China’ s calculated move today, China’s Soft Footprints in Southeast Asia revisits the country’s foreign relations and achievements over the past decades. It is a great read and an in-depth examination of the Chinese government’s engagement and international influence in Southeast Asia.

Asian Perspective, 2012

Despite China’s claims of a foreign policy of ‘peaceful rise’/‘peaceful development’ and of seeking a ‘harmonious world’, and despite its economic openness and active participation in economic multilateralism, China’s neighbours continue to be concerned about the overall direction and intent of Beijing’s security policies. These concerns are particularly heightened by China’s rapid military modernization of the past couple of decades. The announcement in 2010 that China considered its territorial claims in the South China Sea a ‘core interest’, can be seen as a setback to its regional diplomacy, so diligently crafted over the years and drove its Southeast Asian neighbours to seek closer engagement with the US. This article argues that the contradictions evident in China’s neighbourhood foreign policy reflect its continuing search for a model of international relations that can balance its domestic interests such as the need for political stability, including regime stability, on the one hand and its external ambitions for a decisive role in regional affairs, on the other.

China and the United States are the greatest strategic powers of the world today, where China is rising but the United States still remains predominant. Both have their grand strategic visions to shape and manage the world or regional political and security architecture. South Asia, being located in a critical and important geographical area, with players such as India, Pakistan, and others, is factored in their visions. It gives rise to a different combination of alignments and orientations of the states of South Asia and beyond. A kind of power game, along with its tangible manifestations, also seems conspicuous. This paper attempts to develop a broad framework of such developments, along with ramifications, both in place and projected, in the political power games of the relevant actors in South Asia.

Asian Politics & Policy, 2017

In the last two decades, China and India emerged as potential contenders for great power status. During this period, both invested in soft power and capitalized on perceptions of their growing power to advance their interests without locking horns with entrenched stakeholders. This study compares the elements of Chinese and Indian soft power strategies and their impact on the international arena. The findings suggest that China's soft power strategy is more coherent than India's. China is doing well in cultural activities, people to people contacts, attracting foreign students from diverse backgrounds, and portraying itself as a progressive resilient economy while India has an upper hand projecting an image of country with a vibrant civil society and democratic order. Despite differences in spending and development, China's and India's strategies have been equally effective in favorably influencing foreign public perceptions.

Over the course of two decades, China's relations with Southeast Asian states have experienced some of the most dramatic improvements. From one of tension, suspicion and animosity, relations have experienced expanded linkages and cooperation across issues, government levels, people-to-people relations, as well as critical attitudinal changes on the parts of policy-making elites and even publics. Such changes today have generated much debate about the hows and whys of this fast-changing relationship and their significance for both Southeast Asia and other major powers with interests in the region.

Abstract: China’s Soft Power in CLMV: Characteristics, Motivations, and Challenges By Hang Vuthika The prime objective of this study is to examine how China’s soft power is like in its own backyard, specifically Cambodia, Laos-PDR, Myanmar and Vietnam (CLMV), mainly from the first time when President Hu Jintao officially mentioned the term in his speech in 2007. Living close to the Asian “giant”, these Mekong countries (Thailand excluded) can sense the immediate influence of Beijing’s soft power projection. Hence, the investigation takes three key elements into accounts– the characteristics, motivations, and challenges. This study builds on Kurlantzick’s definition to explore the nature of soft power in CLMV, but synthesizes the similar essentials into three concrete categories or so-called 3Ds (cultural diplomacy, engaging diplomacy, and economic diplomacy). The result found that that China’s investment on soft power in CLMV is driven by three main forces, namely the domestic, regi...

International Journal of Social Sciences and Educational Studies, 2017

The concept of soft power has recently become more integrated in China's diplomatic strategy and foreign policy. China's utilization of hard power only is insufficient if it wishes to be an active player on the international stage. It also needs to employ soft power to stimulate its influences and leadership in world politics. This study focuses on the argument that soft power can play a significant role in shaping China's charm image among other countries. It also discusses that China's aspiration to be a more powerful state in the region depends on its ability to put more efforts into its soft power tactics. To this end, China has employed various tools of soft power's sources including Chinese culture, language, arts, aids, trades and investments to promote its influences abroad. China's interest in using soft power comes from its demanding national interests. These national interests include trying to secure a peaceful environment for its economic growth, to accommodate for its increasing energy needs, and also to minimise the influence of other powers, particularly the United States.

The prime objective of this study is to examine how China’s soft power is like in its own backyard, specifically Cambodia, Laos-PDR, Myanmar and Vietnam (CLMV), mainly from the first time when President Hu Jintao officially mentioned the term in his speech in 2007. Living close to the Asian “giant”, these Mekong countries (Thailand excluded) can sense the immediate influence of Beijing’s soft power projection. Hence, the investigation takes three key elements into accounts– the characteristics, motivations, and challenges. This study builds on Kurlantzick’s definition to explore the nature of soft power in CLMV, but synthesizes the similar essentials into three concrete categories or so-called 3Ds (cultural diplomacy, engaging diplomacy, and economic diplomacy). The result found that that China’s investment on soft power in CLMV is driven by three main forces, namely the domestic, regional, and global dynamics. Yet, when it comes to the implementation of soft power, Beijing, along the way, also faces challenges. Predominantly, those limitations are stemmed from government policies and actions itself recognized as the internal factors, and the perception of the beholders (CLMV), and the potential collision between China’s and the US’s soft power projections, known as the external factors. Despite the uncertain picture of the China’s rise, the prospect of China’s soft power is crystal clear. It is heading, not toward a sign of cessation, but continuation since it is a process that cannot be stopped at the status quo, regardless of challenges encountered along the way.