China, US in rival Asian diplomatic blitzes
As US Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrives in Southeast Asia for his first visit in more than six months, he’ll find his Chinese counterpart halfway through a twoweek diplomatic blitz across the key strategic battleground.
Since Monday, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi has secured a fresh pledge from Thailand to complete a US$5.2 billion (NZ$8.4b) rail link between the two countries and expressed a willingness to open a ‘‘golden age’’ of ties with the Philippines’ newly elected president, Ferdinand Marcos Jr. Wang also attended a regional summit in Myanmar, which the military regime hailed as a sign of growing recognition of its rule, more than a year after ousting the civilian government in a coup.
Wang’s 11-day trip was part of China’s push to offer an alternative to the US’s Indo-Pacific Strategy and assuage regional suspicions of its own intentions by emphasising shared economic benefits. The urgency of that effort has been increased by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which has fuelled concern that China could take military action to resolve its own territorial disputes in places like Taiwan.
Blinken is expected to press the US’s case that Russia’s actions set a dangerous precedent, during Group of 20 meetings that begin today in Bali, Indonesia.
Wang, for his own part, has been promoting the Global Security Initiative announced by President Xi Jinping in April, in an effort to appeal to developing nations that may be wary of the Western-led campaign to punish Russia with sanctions.
‘‘It is driven at least in part by Beijing’s desire to be seen as providing security solutions, and pushing back against US charges that China is undermining security,’’ said Bonnie Glaser, director of the Asia programme at the German Marshall Fund of the US. ‘‘China likely sees that there is growing concern about Chinese policies, so it needs to step up its game to improve its image and keep countries onside.’’
Blinken and Wang were slated to meet tomorrow on the sidelines of the G-20 in a high-level meeting expected to set the stage for a phone call between Xi and US President Joe Biden.
The secretary of state last visited Southeast Asia in December, when he travelled to Indonesia and Malaysia, but was forced to skip Thailand due to a Covid case among his entourage. He’ll make up for that with a trip to Bangkok this time.
The Biden Administration has sought to reassert US influence in Asia in recent months, hosting leaders of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations at the White House and visiting Japan and Korea in May. The US has tried to play down the need for countries to line up against China, with Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin telling a security forum in Singapore last month that smaller nations should be ‘‘free to choose, free to prosper and free to chart their own course’’.
Most Asian nations are reluctant to take a side and have sought instead to maintain good relations with both. The recent trip by Wang appeared designed to take advantage of that hedging strategy, by offering a less-interventionist vision for global security that doesn’t emphasise democracy and human rights.
That contrasts with Biden’s effort to expand a coalition of ‘‘likeminded democracies’’, via groupings like the Quad – with Australia, India and Japan.
Most countries in the region count China as their largest trading partner and the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework for Prosperity that Biden rolled out in May remains largely conceptual.