Southeast Asia has been in the process of a comprehensive integration while China, as a regional emerging power, is gradually getting into the international community. Looking around China, Southeast Asia is the most important area for China both at the regional level and bilateral level while other directions are mainly its relations with big powers. And security in Southeast Asia and its changes are eventually becoming more and more influential for China. This chapter evaluates the development of security in Southeast Asia as China becomes more deeply involved and actively integrated into the region.

ASEAN DEVELOPMENT AND SECURITY

During the establishment of ASEAN, the Southeast Asian nations faced great challenges. Since becoming independent, they found it was impossible to deal with the political conflicts at home and in the region only through unilateral or bilateral management and coordination. Some of the conflicts were very serious with complicated backgrounds. Meanwhile, the Cold War made the big powers dominant in Southeast Asia and they were based upon their own global interests rather than the Southeast Asian regional interests. Therefore, the Southeast Asian nations shared the common desire for regional cooperation in the 1960s when regionalism was on the rise.

However, ASEAN was established when the big powers were readjusting their relations in Southeast Asia. The situation made the newly established ASEAN realize that dealing with relations with the big powers was the main task since it concerned ASEAN's existence and development.

Since the regional contradictions were far beyond the coordinating capacity of the newly-born ASEAN in term of their complexity and farreaching impact, simply wiping out the big powers’ presence in the region was obviously not realistic because the geopolitical situation, and the small nations’ worries about their survival made it impossible for the Southeast Asian nations to have a common policy towards the outside powers, and many nations continued to strengthen their security relations with the different big powers.

The first time that ASEAN put forward a policy towards big powers may be the Zone of Peace, Freedom and Neutrality (ZOPFAN) in 1971.3 Though it was weak, it clearly expressed the hope, requirement and way to have a new relation with big powers.