%0 Journal Article
%T The Vexing Strategic Tug-of-War over Naypyidaw: ASEAN¡¯s View of the Sino¨CBurmese Ties
%A Pavin Chachavalpongpun
%J Journal of Current Southeast Asian Affairs
%D 2012
%I German Institute of Global and Area Studies, (GIGA)
%X This article argues that ASEAN¡¯s policy toward Myanmar has been predominantly responsive, dictated by China¡¯s activism in the region. It posits three arguments: First, that the release of political prisoners, including Aung San Suu Kyi, may have been a tactical move to convince ASEAN to award it the 2014 chairmanship and thereby consolidate the legitimacy of the current regime; second, that Thein Sein¡¯s suspension of the Myitsone Dam was a strategic move intended to please both domestic and ASEAN constituencies; and third, that Myanmar¡¯s chairmanship of ASEAN in 2014 will help justify the organisation¡¯s past approach to Burma as well as accelerate the process of community-building. The paper argues that in spite of the growing interconnectedness between ASEAN and China, ASEAN is locked in a strategic tug-of-war with China over Myanmar. Myanmar has, on multiple occasions, played upon ASEAN¡¯s suspicion of China by playing the ¡°China card,¡± as I term it, forcing ASEAN to continually legitimise it through public statements.
%K Political Science
%K PR China
%K Burma
%K ASEAN
%K community-building
%K 300
%K 320
%K 327
%K PR China
%K Burma
%K ASEAN
%K 1950-2011
%U http://hup.sub.uni-hamburg.de/giga/jsaa/article/view/514