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Article: Southeast Asia and China: the role of history and culture in shaping future relations.
- Article from:
- Contemporary Southeast Asia
- Article date:
- April 1, 2004
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2004 Institute of Southeast Asian Studies (ISEAS). This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Introduction: China's Regional Ambitions
China has strategic interests and goals that it is determined to pursue, even in the face of U.S. opposition. (1) These are summed up in the two phrases that recur again and again in discussions with Chinese officials: to overcome the "century of humiliation" that China suffered at the hands of the West and Japan from the First Opium War to the proclamation of the People's Republic (PRC) in 1949; and in the process to regain China's "rightful place in the world". (2) But what is that "rightful place"? Chinese leaders are hot so unrealistic as to hope to recreate a new sinocentric world order with China as global hegemon in ...