Regional engagement in China's foreign policy: the case study of Sino-Thai relations

In the last decades, the Southeast Asia region has gained relevant importance in the international world order. It has become a significant platform for major political, economic and socio-cultural advancements. Many actors are becoming more attractive to this region, and in this context a pivotal role is played by the main regional power: the People's Republic of China (PRC). Nonetheless the relations between China and its neighbors deserves a great deal of attention. This thesis analyses the degree of interaction between China and ASEAN countries. Specifically, the bilateral relations between China and Thailand will be the core of the study. The thesis aims to highlight how regional and bilateral relations can create positive opportunities for the actors involved. On the theoretical level, the basis is the concept of engagement and its application, firstly focusing on the same definition of the term. Furthermore, theories on regionalism are also analysed, focusing on the main outcomes of regionalist policies. The literature review considers both engagement and regionalism theories, since the latter can represent a direct consequence of an engagement policy approach. The second chapter further investigates the applications of regional engagement within the context of Sino-ASEAN relations. Specifically, the attention will be on the regional experience of the ASEAN region in relation with the rise of China as a global economic power. In the first phase, China's peripheral approaches are first analysed, in order to understand the Sino-ASEAN complex engagement. Secondly, the focus is on China-ASEAN relations under the regionalism framework. All of the theoretical premises are useful to the main end of this work. In fact, the third chapter focuses on the Sino-Thai bilateral relations. In this regard, China's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and the Thai's Eastern Economic Corridor project (EEC) serve as models to reveal the relevant outcomes of regional engagement's policies, and to address the research questions: "How China's regional engagement policies benefit its neighbors countries? Does the BRI-EEC cooperation reflect the outcomes of those policies?".