TNAG-0005-FCO40-41-Departmental-briefs-about-Hong-Kong-1968 — Page 78

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27.

Confidential

South East Asia

The small countries of South East Asia have

a long-standing, if intermittent, tradition of

tributary relationship to China. Some, like

Cambodia, think that no other relationship makes

sense while others, like Thailand, are

heartened by the American military presence.

28. It is unlikely that Communist China aims,

any more than Imperial China did, to achieve

military occupation of the whole area, though

this is easier for us to believe than for those

who have to live next to her. Her aim is more

probably to eliminate Western presence and

influence and achieve, primarily by subversion,

the establishment of régimes that will comply in

all major respects with the wishes of Peking.

But whatever view we take of the Chinese threat,

fear of it is very real in South East Asia and

is a most compelling reason for greater co-

operation among the countries of the area.

29. For the northern tier of countries (Burma, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and the Vietnams) the

need to bow before the Chinese wind is the more

compelling the less they receive suport from

either the United States or the Soviet Union;

their economies and local administrations are

weak and their border populations and the resi-

dent Chinese communities are particularly open

to subversion from Peking. Against this,

however, can be put the quite strong nationalism:

that have always set a limit on complete

subservience to China and which can today be seer

operating in Hanoi.

30.