ABSTRACT
China is among the stakeholders in maintaining stable, safe and secure oceans, particularly in East Asian and Southeast Asian seas. With its rapidly growing economy, China's demand for oil and raw materials, and its increasing trade exchanges lead to debates on China's rise of sea power and its implications on Southeast Asia and the Indian Ocean. This chapter describes China's growth arising from Asian dynamism and globalization, discusses the demand for energy and existing problems, and analyses the implications of domestic policy settings on its quest for engaging with Southeast Asian approaches to the cooperative mechanism for the Straits of Malacca and Singapore. Finally, the conclusion covers the author's principal perspectives on the regional situation, China's naval development, its dispatchment of a fleet of naval ships to the Gulf of Aden, China and India, South China Sea and the Straits of Malacca and Singapore.
