Advertisement
Advertisement
South China Sea
Get more with myNEWS
A personalised news feed of stories that matter to you
Learn more
Vietnam’s defence minister Phan Van Giang (left) and US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin in Hanoi on Thursday. Photo: EPA-EFE

China and the US step up their tug of war for Southeast Asian allies

  • While senior officials from Washington toured the region this week China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi was wooing Asean
  • Southeast Asian countries are reluctant to pick a side but the pressure is intensifying
Pressure is intensifying on Southeast Asian nations to pick a side as China and the US step up their efforts to woo the regional players as part of their bitter rivalry.
The dilemma was underscored over the past week, when US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin became the first US cabinet minister from the current administration to visit the region. While he stressed that Washington was “not asking countries in the region to choose between the US and China”, he did not shy away from chiding Beijing.

“Unfortunately, Beijing’s unwillingness to resolve disputes peacefully and respect the rule of law isn’t just occurring on the water,” Austin said, referring to the competing claims in the South China Sea.

“We have also seen aggression against India … destabilising military activity and other forms of coercion against the people of Taiwan … and genocide and crimes against humanity against Uygur Muslims in Xinjiang.”

Chinese embassy blasts US defence chief for ‘attack’ in Singapore lecture

It remains to be seen whether Austin’s assurances will ease concerns that Singapore’s Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong once described as “Southeast Asian countries … being forced into invidious choices” but the purpose of the defence secretary’s visit was clear – to strengthen the US partnership with regional powers amid Washington’s diplomatic stand-off with Beijing.

“Our network of alliances and friendships is an unparalleled strategic asset. And I never take an ally for granted,” Austin told officials, diplomats and academics at an International Institute for Strategic Studies Fullerton Lecture in Singapore on Tuesday.

Li Mingjiang, an associate professor at the S Rajaratnam School of International Studies at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, said the deepening acrimony between China and the US would unnerve Southeast Asian countries, where leaders like Singapore’s Lee have repeatedly expressed their reluctance to be forced to take sides.

Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong has said many Southeast Asian countries don’t want to be forced to picked sides. Photo: Handout

“The tone of his entire speech was that he hoped that regional countries would strengthen partnership with the US and he was actually trying to persuade the regional countries to take a side, and leaders in Southeast Asia should be able to receive the message,” he said.

Six months into Joe Biden’s presidency, Washington is moving to repair ties with its allies after the Trump era. In June, Biden made Europe his first overseas destination, where he rallied European allies to offer hundreds of billions of loans to developing countries to rival Chinese President Xi Jinping’s Belt and Road Initiative.

What is China’s Belt and Road Initiative all about?

And observers said the latest swing through Asia by senior US officials is more evidence that the Biden administration is retooling its alliances eastward to manage the challenges from China.

One day after Austin landed in Singapore, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken was on his first visit to India, working to strengthen a partnership that he described as “one of the US’ top foreign policy priorities”.

In New Delhi, Blinken met with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and joined External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar to reiterate a commitment to expand the Quad partnership – the informal security grouping of the US, India, Australia and Japan seen by Beijing as an attempt to thwart Chinese interests in the region.

“[The US] has intensified its engagement in the region and strengthened its diplomatic and security efforts. To a large extent, it is keen to create a regional posture in the region … to exert pressure on China,” Li said.

China is seen as topping agenda as Antony Blinken begins India visit

Beijing, meanwhile, is seeking to craft a countervailing strategy. On Wednesday, when Austin landed in Hanoi, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi was speaking at a virtual summit to mark the 30th anniversary of formal ties with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. He urged the bloc to adopt what he called “multilateralism with Asian characteristics”.

“China has always made Asean its priority for diplomacy in the region,” Wang said, according to the readout released on Thursday by the Chinese foreign ministry. “Both sides should conduct frequent communication on all levels, and continue with mutual understanding and support for each other’s core interests.”

06:24

Explained: the history of China’s territorial disputes

Explained: the history of China’s territorial disputes

It was a stark contrast to the sharp, aggressive tone used by Wang and other Chinese diplomats during their meeting with US deputy secretary of state Wendy Sherman in Tianjin three days earlier.

Wang said Washington should respect China’s “bottom line” positions – including on Xinjiang, Tibet and Hong Kong – to “prevent Chinese-US relations from further deteriorating or even getting out of control”.

Li said Beijing’s efforts were intended to prevent Southeast Asia from tilting too far towards the US. “From China’s perspective, it is hard to really impact countries like Japan, Australia or India, but China’s influence in Southeast Asia could be relatively bigger and Beijing has put in a lot of effort in [wooing] Southeast Asia and Asean,” he said.

China, US draw lines in sand at top-level meeting but agree to keep talking

Li said there was common ground between Beijing and Southeast Asia, with many countries in the region sceptical of the Quad, for example. There is a concern that the informal alliance could develop into a military grouping which could confront China and drag the region into the bitter China-US rivalry, he said.

“Southeast Asian countries know that if the strategic competition between China and the US continues to intensify, they will face more challenges and difficulties when dealing with the two countries and regional affairs.”

02:16

Philippine fishermen claim continued Chinese harassment on South China Sea

Philippine fishermen claim continued Chinese harassment on South China Sea

Chen Xiangmiao, an assistant research fellow with the National Institute for South China Sea Studies in Hainan, said while Beijing was unlikely to back away in the region, it should avoid taking a direct confrontational approach to the US and pushing Southeast Asia too hard.

“If China follows the path of the US and meets force with Washington, this would be the last scenario that Southeast Asia wants to see, and this is not in China’s benefit.”

This article appeared in the South China Morning Post print edition as: China and the US are stepping up their tug of war for allies in Southeast Asia
45