O Great Game no Sudeste Asiático: a China, a ASEAN e o Mar do Sul da China

Besides being promoting globalization with Chinese characteristics, with the Belt and Road Initiative as an epitome, Xi Jinping’s contemporary China has tried to dominate its regional insertion area and namely Southeast Asia, which is economically and politically organized in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). Both China and ASEAN have convergent economic and strategic interests in the South China Sea, whose wealth in energetic resources and fisheries is at the origin of a sovereignty dispute. In addition to this, around one-third of world trade passes through this sea. In this confluence of sea-lanes, naval powers are being measured and it is a scenario for the competitive coexistence China- United States of America, whose influence in Southeast Asia dates from Cold War, where the United States navy capabilities are being tested. In these circumstances – which can be described as a new Great Game –, not only ASEAN does not solve its problems in the South China Sea but also will be positioned in between Chinese and North- American pressures.