Southeast Asia is a major theater in the superpower rivalry between China and the United States. The states in this region face the challenge how to react to this intensified strategic competition. Some authors suggest a concept of hedging as the main behavioral response of the region. Nevertheless, critics argue that just one concept cannot incorporate all the variation in their behavior. They often name Cambodia and Vietnam as problematic examples -Cambodia rather bandwagoning with China and Vietnam being more a balancer than a hedger. The goal of this article is to create original operational definition of hedging that would address existing limitations through a comparison of the foreign policy of Cambodia and Vietnam during the US pivot to Asia during the Barrack Obama administration. This article finds that hedging can be useful to analyze the responses of Southeast Asian states despite the perceived contradictory stances of Cambodia and Vietnam.

The United States' approach to China since the Communist regime inBeijing began the period of reform and opening in the 1980s was based ona promise that trade and engagement with China would result in apeaceful, democratic state. Forty years later the hope of producing a benignPeople's Republic of China utterly failed. The Communist Party of Chinadeceived the West into believing that the its system and the Party-ruledPeople's Liberation Army were peaceful and posed no threat. In fact, thesemisguided policies produced the emergence of a 21st Century Evil Empireeven more dangerous than a Cold War version in the Soviet Union.Successive American presidential administrations were fooled by ill-advisedpro-China policymakers, intelligence analysts and business leaders whofacilitated the rise not of a peaceful China but a threatening andexpansionist nuclear-armed communist dictatorship not focused on asingle overriding strategic objective: Weakening and destroying the UnitedStates of America. Defeating the United States is the first step for China'scurrent rulers in achieving global supremacy under a new world orderbased an ideology of Communism with Chinese characteristics. The processincluded technology theft of American companies that took place on amassive scale through cyber theft and unfair trade practices. The lossesdirectly supported in the largest and most significant buildup of theChinese military that now directly threatens American and allied interestsaround the world. The military threat is only half the danger as Chinaaggressively pursues regional and international control using a variety ofnon-military forces, including economic, cyber and space warfare and large-scale influence operations.

The United States' approach to China since the Communist regime in Beijing began the period of reform and opening in the 1980s was based on a promise that trade and engagement with China would result in a peaceful, democratic state. Forty years later the hope of producing a benign People's Republic of China utterly failed. The Communist Party of China deceived the West into believing that the its system and the Party-ruled People's Liberation Army were peaceful and posed no threat. In fact, these misguided policies produced the emergence of a 21st Century Evil Empire even more dangerous than a Cold War version in the Soviet Union. Successive American presidential administrations were fooled by ill-advised pro-China policymakers, intelligence analysts and business leaders who facilitated the rise not of a peaceful China but a threatening and expansionist nuclear-armed communist dictatorship not focused on a single overriding strategic objective: Weakening and destroying the United States of America. Defeating the United States is the first step for China's current rulers in achieving global supremacy under a new world order based an ideology of Communism with Chinese characteristics. The process included technology theft of American companies that took place on a massive scale through cyber theft and unfair trade practices. The losses directly supported in the largest and most significant buildup of the Chinese military that now directly threatens American and allied interests around the world. The military threat is only half the danger as China aggressively pursues regional and international control using a variety of non-military forces, including economic, cyber and space warfare and large-scale influence operations.