ABSTRACT
This chapter uses data from the Asian Barometer Survey (ABS) to explore how East Asians view a rising China. We find that Southeast Asians are not prepared to take sides in US–China strategic competition because they believe that the benefit and cost of US influence and Chinese influence are not mutually replaceable, nor incompatible. We also find that China’s post-socialist political system is no longer an obstacle to earning the respect of its neighbors, but that conflict over the unevenly distributed benefits of China’s rise remain.
