Abstract

This dissertation sets out to analyze changing patterns of Chinese-Thai relations from 1949 to 1991 in the traditional "realist" framework. Three main sources of Chinese "political realism"--the Legalist school of thought, "realist" Confucianism, and the Thought of Mao Zedong--indicate that Chinese foreign policy has been mainly influenced by political expediency rather than by the historical legacy of the "Middle Kingdom" or Marxist Internationalism. As a balancer in Indochina, China primarily focused on neutralizing the U.S. threat, rather than respond to Thailand's provocations throughout the 1950s and 1960s. Thai dictatorial rulers deliberately exaggerated the Chinese Communist threat in order to identify Thai interests with the United States and to justify their domestic repression. These leaders did not rely on SEATO military operation to protect Thai security since its inception of 1954. China responded to Thai hostility through verbal propaganda and public threats. There was no serious overarching Chinese design for taking over the Thai regime. ;As Thai security interests were not affected by the Nixon Doctrine of 1969, Chinese-Thai diplomatic normalization was prolonged until July 1975. Since then, Beijing and Bangkok gradually developed a de-facto alliance to check Vietnamese expansionism and Soviet hegemonism in Indochina, especially since the 1978 Vietnamese invasion of Cambodia. Thanks to the practice of vigilance and restraint by all regional powers involved in the Cambodian conflict and to China's balancing role, the balance of power mechanisms in mainland Southeast Asia have operated since 1980, culminating in the complete Vietnamese withdrawal from Cambodia in 1989. ;Because of its traditional assertive, alliance-oriented, foreign policy and because of its ability to provide assets the Chinese needed, Thailand succeeded in forming equal partnership with China. Both attempted to foster even closer relations after the Cambodian peace settlement. Thailand, however, will continually depend upon the United States for security and ASEAN for diplomatic leverage to promote Thai interests. In the meantime, China has still played the role of a peaceful, hegemonic balancer in the mainland Southeast Asian balance of power