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In 2004, Malaysia celebrated the thirtieth anniversary of its normalization of ties with the Peoples' Republic of China with much fanfare. Thailand followed suite in 2005. Indeed, Malaysian and Thai relations with China have come a long way since Kuala Lumpur and Bangkok were driven by shifting geo-strategic conditions in the mid-1970s to establish diplomatic ties with Beijing despite the fact that their respective policymakers continued to view China with grave apprehension. Taken at surface level, the move by these two small Southeast Asian states to establish ties with China not long after the Sino-U.S. rapprochement appeared to vindicate neorealist structural theories of International Relations, which contend that the policy choices of small states are severely constrained by the international system that in turn permits only balancing or bandwagoning behaviour. This paper contends however, that a careful investigation of how policymakers in Kuala Lumpur and Bangkok viewed China over the fifty years or so since the Pacific War, and subsequently how they calibrated their respective foreign policies accordingly, is instructive of the complications that define how small states live with large neighbours in a geopolitical climate characterised by complexity and ambiguity. The investigation undertaken here will proceed in the following manner. The paper first begins by looking at relations during the Cold War, focusing particularly on the content of Thai and Malaysian threat perceptions vis-à-vis China and their respective responses. The section also attempts to unpack the nature and specific constituents of this threat perception. From there, the paper moves on to discuss the post-Cold War "turn", the strategic ambiguity that was born out of this shift, the emergence of China as a major power of consequence in the international politics of East Asia, and how the policies of the two states under scrutiny here adjusted to these new geostrategic realities. The paper then concludes with an assessment of the possible trajectory(s) of Malaysian and Thai relations with China based on the trends that have gone before, and considers the potential input these cases may have to the broader theoretical study of the international politics of East Asia. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims at examining the historical and current situations of Spratly dispute and explaining the strategies of several major actors involved in the dispute, including China, Vietnam, Philippine, Malaysia, and Brunei. Characterized by a multi-dimensional concern, the Spratly dispute is a scenario where conflict exists among several economically interdependent states. Under such situation, the traditional strategies such as balancing and bandwagoning are not enough. In order to ensure survival and get maximal interests, states adopt pragmatic policies toward each other. Therefore, in the area of South China Sea, both cooperation and confrontation exist; and balancing and bandwagoning can be detected and understood. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]