While it comes to China-US rivalry, two opposite themes emerge. China says that this world is big enough for all of us to share its bounties and immense resources without undercutting each other. While the US leadership says that it may be true, the US will determine the rules of sharing, distribution and use of world resources, and anyone found deviating from this path will be punished. Resultantly, the US and its junior partner Europe and countries of Asia Pacific and Indo Pacific regions are following multifaceted policies to push back China.
At the forefront of these policies is the de-risking strategy aimed at reducing excessive reliance on China, particularly in supply chains and markets. This involves diversifying supply chains by sourcing from multiple countries, localizing or reshoring manufacturing operations to reduce dependency on Chinese factories, developing alternative markets, investing in technology and innovation to reduce reliance on Chinese technology, and fostering collaboration and partnerships with other countries or industry players.
On the military front, the US is bullying its partners and allies in the Asia Pacific and Indo Pacific region to push back against Beijing by forging bilateral and multilateral initiatives and partnerships reflecting the United States’ efforts to address challenges posed by China’s assertiveness as part of US policy to encircle China in the Asia Pacific region and beyond as an overarching China containment policy. In addition to the existing groups like QUAD and AUSKUS, USA has developed a new alliance with Japan and the Philippines in an attempt to isolate China from its immediate neighbors. The trilateral summit in Washington in the second week of April, 2024 had announced joint maritime patrols with the Philippines in the South China Sea, where sovereignty is disputed, and to restructure the US military command in Japan — the biggest upgrade to defense cooperation since the 1960s — to make them more responsive against perceived threats from China.
Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (QUAD) which assumed belligerent posture against China in 2016 was formed by the US with Japan, Australia and India focused on maritime security, infrastructure development, supply chain resilience and to share concerns over China’s increasing assertiveness and influence in the Indo-Pacific region driven by the need to counterbalance China’s rise.
Formed in 2021, AUKUS is the second most important alliance of the US with Australia and the United Kingdom aimed to deepen trilateral cooperation on defense and security, with a focus on enhancing Australia’s maritime capabilities, including acquiring nuclear-powered submarines. Currently AUKUS is being expanded by offering membership to Japan. Geopolitically, AUKUS signifies a strategic move to counterbalance China’s influence in the face of evolving security challenges in the region. This forum aimed at empowering Australia to manufacture nuclear submarines which will be deployed in the strait that separates China and Taiwan. In sum, things are profoundly profound insofar US-China tensions are concerned. Needless to say, US-China tensions are every country’s problem now. In my view, both sides are in a zero-sum competition.
Shaukat Mirza
Lahore
Copyright Business Recorder, 2024
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