China and Japan have developed a competitive/rivalrous relationship, which is expected to worsen in the coming decades. Perceiving Southeast Asia as an economic, political and strategic “prize”, they have elevated the importance of Southeast Asia/Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in their foreign policy strategies. The outcome has been competitive/rivalrous relationship where both fiercely compete to gain influence in Southeast Asia at the expense of the other. While the extant literature has covered various aspects of Sino-Japanese competition/rivalry in Southeast Asia, the Southeast Asian perspective has been largely silent in this research. More specifically, these studies have ignored the role that Southeast Asian/ASEAN have played in shaping the Chinese and Japanese policies and options that make up their foreign policy strategies towards Southeast Asia.