The Obama Administration's ‘pivot' to Asia and the shift of US resources and attention from other regions in the aftermath of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars have convinced Beijing that Washington, DC, is seriously working to retard China's growth, writes Annpurna Nautiyal
The absence of US President Barack Obama from the summit of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Forum held recently in Bali in Indonesia has provided another opportunity to Chinese media to make noises about the vulnerability of the US. This has allowed the Chinese propaganda machine to tell the countries and the people of Asia-Pacific how weak the US is to fulfil its commitments towards the Asia-Pacific due to its domestic crisis.
The Chinese media is full of praise for its leadership who got plenty of opportunity to air their views about the Asian affairs and the US-Asian strategy of re-balance in the absence of Mr Obama. The US shut-down, forcing Mr Obama to stay at home during this important meeting, has in their viewpoint shed water on Mr Obama’s plans of convincing the countries of Asia-Pacific about the US’s strategy of ‘rebalancing Asia’ or ‘return to Asia’ under the policy of defence and economic reassurance to the countries of this region. It is also being said by the critics that the domestic crisis at home indicates that the United States no longer has the capability or power to undertake sincerely and seriously its Asian strategy which aims to re-negotiate trade and defence arrangements with the countries of Indo-Pacific.
The Pivot to Asia policy as a grand strategy of the US foreign policy under the Obama Administration, aspires to place more emphasis on the regions of North-East Asia, South-East and South Asia, because of their growing importance in the US designs in the 21st century. The US felt the need of this policy to reassure the countries of this region of the US economic, military and diplomatic support in the face of a rising and assertive China.
Under this policy, the US aspires to develop good relations with all the countries of this region including the regional powers like Indonesia, and the two great powers like China and India, as without this the policy’s success would be doubtful. In view of the growing Chinese assertiveness in this region the US also seeks to develop and implement the regional norms and rules as per the international law which would be able to safeguard maritime and other freedoms of the countries of this region. Besides, the US is also building deeper friendship with countries like Singapore and India to put a check on the Chinese assertiveness.
In view of this, it can be said that Mr Obama’s presence was crucial in the APEC forum, and his absence gave the wrong message about the US’s commitments towards this part of the world.
As a matter of fact, China believes that the US grand strategy of ‘pivot’ to Asia has undermined peace and stability in the region as it has encouraged the Asian countries to view China as a threat and as the trouble-maker in regional territorial disputes which China has with almost all the countries of the region.
Since China has territorial dispute with Japan on the Senkaku/Diaoyu Islands and with Vietnam and the Philippines in the South China Sea, these nations see China as an aggressive power ready to undermine them. China claims almost the entire oil and gas-rich South China Sea, overlapping with claims from Taiwan, Malaysia, Brunei, the Philippines and Vietnam.
The South China Sea is actually one of the region’s gravest flashpoints which has seen more tensions due to China’s growing military build-up and the US ‘pivot’ to Asia policy initiated by the Obama Administration in 2011. The US has pledged military help for others such as Japan in East Asia and the Philippines in South-East Asia that have taken the toughest line of action against China by staking their claims on various islands in South China Sea in the face of Chinese aggressiveness.
On the other hand, China also has reasons to believe, on account of the adverse behaviour of these neighbouring countries, that the US strategy, which aspires to bring stability in the region, has brought more instability, and its provocative policies made the neighbourhood more tense.
The Obama Administ- ration’s ‘pivot’ to Asia and the shift of US resources and attention from other regions in the aftermath of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars have convinced US foreign- policy watchers in Beijing that Washington is seriously working to retard China’s growth and containing it the way it had contained the former Soviet Union during the Cold War.
Due to this reason, China is opposed to the US attempts of negotiating a Trans-Pacific Partnership which involves 12 countries excluding China namely: The US, Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam. China believes that one of the main purposes of the US is to impose its value and market standards on other countries of the region, which China dislikes the most.
(The writer is Professor of Political Science, HNB Garhwal University, Uttarakhand)