China and the Wider World of the Asia-Pacific

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Our team of 15 worked on China's relations with the Asia-Pacific region. We organized 15 workshops in 3 years. Of the 15 two were joint ones with the "Chinese World" and "Society" teams and one with the "World System" team of the "South Asia" Project, which were meant for interdisciplinary approaches. In June 1998, we took charge of the "China and the Asia-Pacific World" session of the 5th Plenary Conference in an attempt to share our findings with the other teams.3 years' joint research led us to some tentative conclusions. (1) With the end of the Cold War China's influence and economic relations became confined to the Asia-Pacific region and its new diplomatic strategy is to cultivate its Asian neighbours in order to secure peaceful environment and fend off American "threat". (2) A new "China threat theory" arose in Southeast Asia, but it is essentially different from that in the Cold War in 2 points : a) the "threat" is considered controllable through "constructive engagemenr" of China ; and b) it no longer involves the Overseas Chinese. (3) Economically, the "Chinese network" of Hong Kong, Taiwan and Overseas Chinese greatly contributed to China's development in general and that in the South in particular. China has been extremely keen on strengthening their ties with the Overseas Chinese communities. (4) All the above 3 points indicate certain structural changes. Hong Kong's return to China and the Asian economic crisis in 1997 could cause further structural changes.