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Tensions mount in Asia as China rises
BY XIAOXIONG YI August 25, 2010
China's growing assertive foreign policy and its ambitious military expansion plans are transforming Asia's strategic landscape. All major regional actors in East, South and Southeast Asia, including the United States, India, Australia, Vietnam and other ASEAN states are reconfiguring their policy responses toward China's rise.
Geopolitical competition between China and the United States is in full swing in Asia. Viewing from Washington, "China is shifting its military focus from a land-centric focus to an air and maritime-focused capability," and such a strategic shift "cannot be left unchecked," says Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff.
Most recently, a congressionally mandated defense report, drafted by former White House National Security Advisor Stephen Hadley and former U.S. Defense Secretary William Perry, called for the U.S. Navy to "beef up U.S. maritime power in Asia to confront the rise of new global great powers in Asia." The Hadley-Perry Report, although phrased in plural, clearly has China as its target.
Washington's perception of a looming conflict with China is shared by New Delhi. Despite occasional rhetoric about India and China being partners, tensions between the two Asian giants are escalating and the India-China relations are becoming confrontational by the day.
"India is surrounded," writes David Van Praagh, author of "The Greater Game: India's Race with Destiny and China," "The world's largest democracy finds itself confronted by dictatorial China on every side of the subcontinent. To the north, Communists tied to Beijing have taken over Nepal, and India's Himalayan buffer against Chinese expansion is gone. To the south, neither Sri Lanka nor the delighted Chinese are trying to hide Beijing's effective capture of the civil-war-weary island. China's aim is a major base on the Indian Ocean to counter the Indian and U.S. navies. To the east, China is firmly allied with the brutal military regime in Burma (Myanmar). Again, Beijing's strategic goal is naval control. To the west, China has made its proxy, Pakistan, nuclear weapons possible."
To strengthen India's defense against China, New Delhi has not only massively upgraded its navy and air force, including an Indian-Russian arms deal worth more than $3.3 billion to build 42 new long-range, multirole Su-30MKI fighters to be deployed at the Tezpur and Chabua Air Force Bases near the Chinese border, but also joined the new "Quadrilateral Initiative" with Australia, Japan and the U.S. Although the Quad members claim their strategic partnership is only aimed at maintaining regional security and is not targeting any particular power, analysts see the Quad as a concerted effort by a "democratic coalition" to contain the rising Chinese power.
Southeast Asian governments also are expressing their serious concerns about China's ambitions. When Beijing starts to claim the South China Sea as its territorial waters and defines it as China's "core national interest," it has sent a shock wave through the Southeast Asian states, including the Philippines, Malaysia and Vietnam, who also have territorial claims in the sea.
"This sea passage," writes Harsh Pant of King's College, "is too important to be controlled by a single country. China is challenging the fundamental principle of free navigation. The dispute in South China Sea is not merely about resources, it is also central to China's ambitions for a blue water navy. In the last few months, there have been confrontations involving the Malaysian Navy, the Indonesian Navy and the Vietnamese Navy each separately with the People's Liberation Army Navy."
The ASEAN states, led by Indonesia, Vietnam and to a lesser extent Malaysia, are pushing back against what they see as Chinese expansion. "The nations of Southeast Asia are building up their militaries," reports John Pomfret of the Boston Globe, "buying submarines and jet fighters at a record pace, and edging closer strategically to the United States as a hedge against China's rise and its claims to all of the South China Sea."
In this arms-buying spree, Vietnam's weapons acquisitions program is perhaps the most significant "because it appears singularly focused on deterring China," so says Pomfret, "Hanoi has reached out to a variety of partners. It has a strong relationship with India, one of China's main competitors in the region. But Vietnam is also growing increasingly close to the United States."
The Cold War may not be back to Asia yet, but with political and military tensions mounting between China and other major states in the region, a chill wind of an arms race is blowing through the world's largest and most populous continent as Asia reshapes its strategic alignments.
Yi is the director of Marietta College's China Program.
Tensions mount in Asia as China rises | zanesvilletimesrecorder.com | Zanesville Times Recorder
BY XIAOXIONG YI August 25, 2010
China's growing assertive foreign policy and its ambitious military expansion plans are transforming Asia's strategic landscape. All major regional actors in East, South and Southeast Asia, including the United States, India, Australia, Vietnam and other ASEAN states are reconfiguring their policy responses toward China's rise.
Geopolitical competition between China and the United States is in full swing in Asia. Viewing from Washington, "China is shifting its military focus from a land-centric focus to an air and maritime-focused capability," and such a strategic shift "cannot be left unchecked," says Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff.
Most recently, a congressionally mandated defense report, drafted by former White House National Security Advisor Stephen Hadley and former U.S. Defense Secretary William Perry, called for the U.S. Navy to "beef up U.S. maritime power in Asia to confront the rise of new global great powers in Asia." The Hadley-Perry Report, although phrased in plural, clearly has China as its target.
Washington's perception of a looming conflict with China is shared by New Delhi. Despite occasional rhetoric about India and China being partners, tensions between the two Asian giants are escalating and the India-China relations are becoming confrontational by the day.
"India is surrounded," writes David Van Praagh, author of "The Greater Game: India's Race with Destiny and China," "The world's largest democracy finds itself confronted by dictatorial China on every side of the subcontinent. To the north, Communists tied to Beijing have taken over Nepal, and India's Himalayan buffer against Chinese expansion is gone. To the south, neither Sri Lanka nor the delighted Chinese are trying to hide Beijing's effective capture of the civil-war-weary island. China's aim is a major base on the Indian Ocean to counter the Indian and U.S. navies. To the east, China is firmly allied with the brutal military regime in Burma (Myanmar). Again, Beijing's strategic goal is naval control. To the west, China has made its proxy, Pakistan, nuclear weapons possible."
To strengthen India's defense against China, New Delhi has not only massively upgraded its navy and air force, including an Indian-Russian arms deal worth more than $3.3 billion to build 42 new long-range, multirole Su-30MKI fighters to be deployed at the Tezpur and Chabua Air Force Bases near the Chinese border, but also joined the new "Quadrilateral Initiative" with Australia, Japan and the U.S. Although the Quad members claim their strategic partnership is only aimed at maintaining regional security and is not targeting any particular power, analysts see the Quad as a concerted effort by a "democratic coalition" to contain the rising Chinese power.
Southeast Asian governments also are expressing their serious concerns about China's ambitions. When Beijing starts to claim the South China Sea as its territorial waters and defines it as China's "core national interest," it has sent a shock wave through the Southeast Asian states, including the Philippines, Malaysia and Vietnam, who also have territorial claims in the sea.
"This sea passage," writes Harsh Pant of King's College, "is too important to be controlled by a single country. China is challenging the fundamental principle of free navigation. The dispute in South China Sea is not merely about resources, it is also central to China's ambitions for a blue water navy. In the last few months, there have been confrontations involving the Malaysian Navy, the Indonesian Navy and the Vietnamese Navy each separately with the People's Liberation Army Navy."
The ASEAN states, led by Indonesia, Vietnam and to a lesser extent Malaysia, are pushing back against what they see as Chinese expansion. "The nations of Southeast Asia are building up their militaries," reports John Pomfret of the Boston Globe, "buying submarines and jet fighters at a record pace, and edging closer strategically to the United States as a hedge against China's rise and its claims to all of the South China Sea."
In this arms-buying spree, Vietnam's weapons acquisitions program is perhaps the most significant "because it appears singularly focused on deterring China," so says Pomfret, "Hanoi has reached out to a variety of partners. It has a strong relationship with India, one of China's main competitors in the region. But Vietnam is also growing increasingly close to the United States."
The Cold War may not be back to Asia yet, but with political and military tensions mounting between China and other major states in the region, a chill wind of an arms race is blowing through the world's largest and most populous continent as Asia reshapes its strategic alignments.
Yi is the director of Marietta College's China Program.
Tensions mount in Asia as China rises | zanesvilletimesrecorder.com | Zanesville Times Recorder
