A Comparative Study Of Thailand’s And Lao’s Foreign Policy Change Toward China

Because of China economically rising and her increasing power in international level,the concern of the foreign policy toward China is become the center attention to herneighboring countries. The purpose of this thesis is to study Thailand’s foreign policy towardChina from1973, and Laos’ foreign policy toward China from1986, at the vantage point ofeach nation’s foreign policy toward its neighboring countries, and the further policy in thepost Cold War era, by using Charles O. Learche and Abdul A. Said’s concept of NationalInterest and James N. Rosenau’s theory of the Linkage Politics as the framework of analysis.The thesis assumption is that both Thailand’s and Laos’ national interests, economically, aswell as politically, and the external factors, especially international situation, both global andregional, have influenced the change of both nations’ foreign policy toward China.Thailand and Laos national interests; political and the government’s legitimacysecurity, economic development and national values maintenance, were the key factors thatmattered in their policy adjusting toward China. The political and security interests madeboth nations needed China as the friendly and trustworthy neighbor and partner. There werealso external factors, which had higher level of influence in Laos’ case of foreign policychanging compare to Thailand’s case, that were effective in foreign policy changes and this isthe prove of the Linkage Politic theory assumption.This thesis finding is that Thailand’s foreign policy toward China, since1973, hadshifted as the result of the both changing of international situation and changing of the Thai’sleader vision about China in1973, when the perception of the government leader, which nolonger belong to the army, was set in the new vision of Thai’s post in the world politics. AndLaos’ foreign policy toward China in the post Cold War era had changed also as the result ofshifting of international situation and the New Thinking Policy establishment in1986, thataimed to open her nation to cooperate with the neighboring countries since the power ofVietnam and the USSR over Laos was declined. So, both internal and external factors haveinfluenced in the change of foreign policy of the two nations in order to serve their nationalinterests, but the differentiation between the policy shift of these nations is that Thailand’sinternal factors, in1973, had more influence to foreign policy-making while Laos’ external factors, during the early1980s, had influenced the foreign policy-making more than its stableinternal factors.Another finding is that, compare to Thai’s policy change, Laos’ foreign policy changewas more influenced by the external factors, for example, the international condition changeafter the Cambodia problem was solved and the collapse of communism in the EasternEurope, which affected Laos because they were Laos’ aid and economic assistance, so thatLaos needed to find new economic partner and China was the biggest neighboring countrythat Laos saw as the most important assistance which could replace the former partners, andalso the relationship normalization of China and Russia, and China and Vietnam at the end ofCold War also affected Laos as China economic development could benefit Laos’ economy.And Laos’ foreign policy change was fit to the explanation of the theoretical frameworkswhich used here, especially the Linkage Politic theory.Thailand foreign policy change was influenced from internal factors more thanexternal factors, compare to Laos case. The internal factors in Thailand play higher level ininfluencing the foreign policy toward China, mainly the perception of the government leadertoward China, the communist country. There were the changing of domestic political polarpower-from military power to civilian power, the uprising of people power in14October1973, the increasing role of the civilian and the middle class in political dimension, the needof Thailand to expanse trade and market with the neighboring countries, the decreasing trustin the USA in foreign policy making toward China and communist countries which led totension between Thailand and her neighboring nations, and the role of Thai communist partywhich was the main concern of Thai government because communist party would challengethe authority of monarchy system, the old and respective tradition system of Thailand.Meanwhile, external factors play more level of influence to Laos’ foreign policyshifted in1986. The external factors were the decreasing role of Vietnam over Laos’ foreignpolicy since Vietnam yield in Cambodia interference, the developing relationship among theworld super powers, the USSR-China, the USSR-the USA, and the USA-China during1980s,and the declining power of the USSR.In this comparative case, Laos’ internal factors mattered less than in Thailand becausethe internal factors of Laos were more stable–the socialist political ideology, single-partyled political system, while the foreign policy was depended on Vietnam and the USSR’sforeign policy as they were the role model of decolonization and national development. While in Thailand, the domestic politics was not as stable as Laos’ because of the coupsd’etat and “democracy” political regime. Laos has more continuity in foreign policy makingdue to the political regime. For Laos, the demise of Soviet Union and the end1980s had thegreat impact on Laos since the Soviet Union was the leader of socialist camp and animportant economic supporter to Laos. Laos saw China as the most important country thatcould replace the Soviet Union in supporting Laos economic and infrastructure development.Also the security issue which could be provided after establishment of bilateral relations.The common factors that influenced the both cases’ policy change toward China wasthe domestic political dilemma; they were having the will to negotiate with Chinagovernment about ceasing her support to the rebellion groups that were considered as thepolitical threat, and the challenge of the government’s legitimacy of Thailand and Laos. Thisis the evidence showing that the foreign policy of China, in supporting the communistmovement or the revolutionary group that fight against the imperialism USA, or USSR, wasalso having strong influence to both Thai and Laos government’s decision to normalizerelationship with china to be able to bargain political dilemma issue with China. Beside, theboth cases here were confronting alignment’s power vacuum, the USA was decreasing powerover Southeast Asia mainland in the early1970s and Vietnam was pulling her influence overLaos’ foreign policy in the end of1980s, and those powers changing had put these two smallnations in the risky situation to be isolated, and that made the political leaders changed theirperception toward China as the friendly and helpful regional power.The successful of foreign policy adjustments is that Thailand and Laos would furtherdevelop the mutual interest cooperation and bilateral relations based on the peacefulcoexistence with China, and even deeper and more comprehensive way. My thesis will bedivided into five significant parts, which are introduction, three chapters and the conclusion:Introduction: The introduction will present the theoretical frameworks used inanalyzing the case studies and further give the information about the related literatures whichprovide works explaining about Thailand’s and Laos’ foreign policy and China’s influence inSoutheast Asian mainland countries’ foreign affairs. The Introduction also gives the purposeof this research and briefly presents the three chapters as the result of researching onThailand’s and Laos’ foreign policy.Chapter I: I will explain the significant of the comparative case studies, Thailand andLaos, as the neighboring nations with different political ideology and foreign policy determination and would give the characteristic of both nations’ foreign policy with China.Here would be historical exploring part showing that the policy decision in the past hadinfluence to the foreign policy setting contemporary, and in the future. Here, I will presenthow policy maker constructed their perception toward China before the policy changed in theparticular period of each case.Chapter II: The main argument about the national interests’ mattered in Thailandand Laos’ foreign policy change toward China, including internal and external factorsanalysis, which would be the main finding of this thesis objective to compare the situation inThailand and Laos and explain the reason that made they changed their foreign policy towardChina; after national interests was set to be economic development and to maintain thegovernment’s power in domestic political dimension, also exploring the affect of the externalenvironment changing.Chapter III: The finding about the outcome of the policy change, which showingthat both Thailand and Laos were success in normalizing relationship with China and thepolicy adjustment was the proper choice for the small countries to consider in order tosurvive in the international politics. And the conclusion will argue that Thailand and Laos aremostly in every way different, except the cultural and belief, but in the time they confronteddomestic political dilemma and the change of external environment, they both realizednormalizing relationship with China would rather be beneficial than threaten, and theoutcomes of the policy change are the evidence that cooperating with China, Thailand andLaos have accomplished their political and economic objective, which I would say that Chinaalso achieve her goal of maintaining Southeast Asia mainland nations out of other global orregional power, and to gain support from the small countries in her path to rise peacefully ininternational politics.