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It is widely known that China's influence on Southeast Asia has been growing rapidly since the Asian financial crisis of 1997. However, determining the true dimensions of China's influence in this region is still controversial. It seems quite conspicuous that the growing economic relations between China and the region give China more bargaining power, due to the expanding role of the bilateral trade and China's foreign aid in promoting the regional economic growth. However, this does not give us a clear picture of how China has been able to exercise its influence on the behavior of the states in the region for its own interests. Therefore, this paper tries to assess China's influence on Southeast Asia by analyzing the specific case of Taiwan. Recently, China's rising influence has significantly affected Southeast Asia's relations with Taiwan. Southeast Asian states are paying more attention to the cross-Strait relations when considering attempting to improve relations with Taiwan. This research defines "influence" as the capability of state A to affect the behavior of state B, either directly or indirectly, to comply with state A's policy interests. If the diplomatic behavior of state B changes accordingly due to the action, then it can be said that state A has illustrated its influence over state B. By studying the Taiwan issue, this paper reveals that China has been quite successful in exercising its influence on Southeast Asian states to comply with China's policy toward Taiwan. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Compared to its relations with the People's Republic of China (PRC), Australia's relations with Taiwan are often underrated. As a substantial trading partner and as a polity that has transformed into a robust 'Asian democracy', Taiwan constitutes a significant if highly complex dimension of evolving Australian foreign policy. A workshop was convened at the Australian National University in early May 2007 to consider the evolving geopolitical, economic and socio-cultural dimensions of bilateral relations between these two regional actors. Among the basic themes emerging from workshop deliberations were how the growth of Chinese power would effect stability in the Taiwan Straits and throughout maritime Asia; how Chinese power would shape future order-building in the region and any role that Australia and/or Taiwan might play in that process; how Taiwanese democracy would factor into any future regional order and what Australia's future Taiwan posture should be given that that country is committed to a 'one China policy' acknowledging the PRC as China. Among the conclusions reached were that Australia must intensify its diplomatic efforts toward both Beijing and Washington to ensure that potential Sino-American differences over Taiwan do not escalate into military conflict and that time and generational change may work to facilitate a peaceful solution to this protracted security dilemma*. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]