Photographer: Tomohiro Ohsumi / Bloomberg
Photographer: Tomohiro Ohsumi / Bloomberg
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The Trump administration has downgraded its strategy to ensure continued domination of China, which focuses on accelerating India’s growth as a counterweight to Beijing and its ability to defend Taiwan against attack.
National Security Adviser Robert O’Brien announced Tuesday publication of the document, entitled “United States The strategic framework for the Indo-Pacific. Approved by President Donald Trump in February 2018, it provided “general strategic guidance” for US action over the past three years and was released to show the US commitment to “keep the Indo-Pacific region free and open for a long time to come.” , ” Brien said in a statement.
“Beijing is increasingly pressuring Indo-Pacific nations to subordinate their freedom and sovereignty to a ‘common destiny’ provided by the Chinese Communist Party,” O’Brien said. statement. “The US approach is different. We try to make sure that our allies and partners – all those who share the values and aspirations of a free and open Indo-Pacific – can maintain and protect their sovereignty. ”
The paper presents a vision for the region where North Korea is no longer a threat, India is predominant in South Asia, and the US is working with partners around the world to resist Chinese activities to undermine sovereignty by coercion. She assumed that China would take “increasingly assertive” steps to force unification with Taiwan and warned that its dominance over state-of-the-art technologies, such as artificial intelligence, would “pose profound challenges to free societies.”
China said the report “sensitized China’s threat theory” and said the US had “opposed its commitment to the Taiwan issue”.
“The content only demonstrates the US’s dangerous reasons for containing China and sabotaging regional peace and stability,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said in a briefing Wednesday. “We need to make sure that Asia-Pacific is a step for China and the United States to improve mutually beneficial cooperation. It should not become an arena where a zero-sum game is played. ”
Where a US-China clash can occur in the South China Sea
While the release date just a week before President-elect Joe Biden raised questions about the reason, the Trump administration’s actions to counter China in Asia have largely enjoyed bipartisan support. The incoming Biden officials spoke of the need to work more with allies and partners against China, which is also a key part of the strategy – especially in strengthening security ties with Australia, Japan and India.
Rory Medcalf, a professor and head of the National Security College at the Australian National University, said the document shows that US policy in Asia has been driven by efforts to “strengthen allies and counter China.” But he noted that the strategy was so ambitious that “failure was almost assured” on issues such as disarming North Korea, supporting the “primacy” in the region and finding an international consensus against harmful Chinese economic practices.
“The declassified framework will have lasting value as the beginning of a comprehensive government plan to manage strategic rivalry with China,” Medcalf wrote in a statement. post for the research group of the Australian Strategic Policy Institute. “If the United States is serious about this long-term contest, they will not be able to choose between tidying up their house and projecting power in the Indo-Pacific. You will have to do both at the same time. ”
Key aspects of the report include:
China
- He assumes that China “aims to dissolve US alliances and partnerships in the region. China will exploit the vacuum cleaners and opportunities created by these diminished bonds. ”
- “China is trying to dominate cutting-edge technologies, including artificial intelligence and bio-genetics, and capitalize on them in the service of authoritarianism. Chinese dominance in these technologies would pose profound challenges for free societies. “
- “China will take more and more insistent steps to force unification with Taiwan.”
- It acts to “counter China’s predatory economic practices that freeze foreign competition, undermine US economic competitiveness and support the Chinese Communist Party’s aspiration to dominate the 21st century economy.”
- “Build an international consensus that China’s unfair industrial policies and trade practices affect the global trading system.”
- “Work closely with allies and countries with similar ideas to prevent China’s acquisition of military and strategic capabilities”
India
- Desired result: “India’s preferred security partner is United States. The two are cooperating to maintain maritime security and counter Chinese influence in South and Southeast Asia and other regions of mutual interest. ”
- “India remains preeminent in South Asia and plays a leading role in maintaining the security of the Indian Ocean.”
- “Accelerate India’s growth and capacity to serve as a net security provider and major defense partner; to strengthen a lasting strategic partnership with India, backed by a strong Indian army ”.
- “Strengthen the capacity of emerging partners in South Asia, including the Maldives, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, to contribute to a free and open order.”
Taiwan
- “Develop and implement a capable defense strategy, but not limited to: (1) China’s refusal to uphold air and maritime dominance within the ‘first island chain’ in a conflict; (2) the defense of the nations of the first island chain, including · Taiwan; and (3) dominating all areas outside the first island chain ”.
- “Enable Taiwan to develop an effective asymmetric defense strategy and capabilities to ensure its security, freedom of coercion, resilience, and ability to engage China on its own terms.”
North Korea:
- Objective: “Convince the Kim regime that the only way to survive is to give up its nuclear weapons.”
- “Maximize pressure on Pyongyang by using economic, diplomatic, military, law enforcement, intelligence and intelligence tools to paralyze North Korea’s weapons of mass destruction programs, stifle foreign exchange flows, weaken the regime and set the conditions for negotiations that aims at its reversal and missile programs, ultimately achieving the complete, verifiable and irreversible denuclearization of the Peninsula. ”
- “Do this: (1) helping South Korea and Japan to acquire advanced conventional military capabilities; (2) the proximity of South Korea and Japan to each other. ”
Southeast Asia
- Objective: “To promote and strengthen the central role of South-East Asia and Asia in the security architecture of the region and to encourage it to speak with one voice on key issues.”
- “Promoting an integrated Indo-Pacific economic development model that offers a credible alternative to One Belt One Road; set up a working group on how best to use public-private partnerships. ”
– With the assistance of Philip Heijmans, Iain Marlow and Jing Li
(Updates with China’s response from the fifth paragraph.)