ABSTRACT
This chapter looks at the Malacca Strait as both a necessary part of China's dreams of economic development and emergence of a regional and global power, and an issue relevant to a number of problems that China faces in its development. It argues that the Malacca Strait is of great strategic importance to China for a number of reasons. The Strait's geopolitical centrality as a shipping lane makes China dependent on goods that pass through the Strait, and it thus has an incentive to try to ensure that its goods continue to pass through unimpeded. The chapter illustrates the clash between China's strategic interests and its actual behaviour with a discussion of the role that China played in the search for the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370, an incident that took place in and around the Malacca Strait and Indian Ocean, and involved both China and littoral states in the Malacca Strait.
