This research on ASEAN`s survival strategy perceives current US-China competition in East Asia, which is a clash between the US re-engagement with East Asia and the China`s Charm offensive towards Soothest Asian nations as a transition phenomenon that poses threat to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). This article borrows an analytical framework from Amitave Acharya`s research that emphasised realist and institutionalist strategies of ASEAN and attempts to supplement Acharya`s argument. Historically ASEAN, squeezed by superpowers, has been very flexible in adopting various strategies including realist balancing act, constructivist institutionalism and restrictive institutionalism, depending on the varying natures of threats and transitions. Especially, unlike what Acharya argued, those strategies have not been sequentially applied, but have been simultaneously adopted for the different natures of threats and transitions. Current US-China competition in East Asia poses another threat to the survival of ASEAN. ASEAN, most of all, has to strengthen internal cohesion of 10 ASEAN countries to utilise its strength to the fullest in overcoming the challenge that impinges on ASEAN autonomy.