Asian Angle | Anatomy of choice: why Southeast Asia is aligning with China
The US-China rivalry is forcing difficult choices, with the results of a 30-year study suggesting Southeast Asia is drifting towards Beijing
Southeast Asian leaders have long repeated the familiar refrain: they do not wish to choose sides between the two great powers. Both Washington and Beijing, for their part, have often claimed they do not intend to force such a choice. But that attitude appears to be changing.
Such ultimatums create a strategic dilemma for Southeast Asia. But in truth, states make choices constantly: whether to sign an economic pact, join a multilateral organisation or purchase military hardware, for example. The question is not whether choices are made, but why they are made in the context of great‑power competition – and what the pattern of those choices reveals about regional alignments.