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Chinese records are some of the earliest reliable recordswhich tells us of early Southeast Asia. In the 3rd century, A.D. whenthe Chinese empire was divided into three kingdoms, the Southernkingdom of Wu sent a mission to Southeast Asia to report on thepolitical situation there. They wrote of more than a hundred kingdomsin what they referred to as the 'Southern Seas'. The mission hadimportant consequences. It encouraged many more Southeast Asian statesto open official relations with China. At first, those who sentmissions to China most frequently were mainly from modern Vietnam,Cambodia, Thailand and the Malay Peninsula. But later, the kingdoms ofJava and Sumatra noted the profits of the China trade and sent missionstoo.

This trade became increasingly important as the Chinese becamemore and more ardent in their new Buddhist faith. The famous Buddhistmonk I-Tsing usedChien-Ch'a (Kedah) andLang-Chia-Shu(Langkasuka) as stopping points on his pilgrimage to India. Because ofBuddhism, they began to use incense, and the best incense was made fromthe aromatic woods found in Southeast Asia. They specially valued someof the objects of worship to be found in the Buddhist centres of theregion, both in India and Sri Vijaya.

In this way, new links were established and the trade expandedrapidly. The reunification of China by the Sui and T'ang dynasties inthe 7th century greatly increased this trade - the power and wealth ofthe newly reunified China was quickly appreciated in Southeast Asia,and most of the kingdoms in the area sought to establish officialrelations with China. T'ang China was the richest country at that timeand attracted traders from all over the world, both by land and by sea.By the 10th century, when the T'ang dynasty collapsed, a trading systemevoplved whereby officials at the southern ports welcomed the foreigntrading missions and determined their tributary status, while localChinese merchants handled the trade under supervision. In this way,both imperial and private interests were served and a new era oftrading was opened. China became a very important market for SoutheastAsian goods and the trade brought wealth to the region. As time wenton, the Chinese not only traded in goods to and from China, but alsobecame some of the middlemen in the trade between different parts ofSoutheast Asia. When the Mongols conquered China and founded the Yuandynasty, they found the trade necessary for imperial revenue. They evenwent so far as to organise an expedition to Java in 1293 to demonstratethe power of China, sending a fleet of a thousand ships carrying 20,000men.

China began to have great political influence. This was not interms of changing the local forms of government or the ideas ofgovernment. What was significant was the very near presence of China'spower. Although China did not really use this power against SoutheastAsia (except for the Mongol expedition to Java), its potential powerwas often a factor in local politics. This was particularly true duringthe 15th century, during the Ming dynasty, when Chinese fleets sailedseveral times down the South China Sea. These expeditions of the famousAdmiral Cheng Ho just one century before the arrival of the Europeans,marked the peak of Chinese relations with Southeast Asia. The fleetsdemonstrated Chinese power, Cheng Ho intervened in local politics andthe tributary system was reinforced. Even though the expeditions wereabandoned and the policy reversed after 30 years, the impact of China'spower was tremendous.