China’s ‘troubling’ hold
THE United States is concerned about China’s growing influence in the Pacific and finds the developmental loans to island nations the most “troubling”.
Admiral Phil Davidson, the commander of America’s oldest and largest military combatant command, Hawaii-based United States Indo-Pacific Command (USINDOPACOM), claimed the funding provided by China was not all carrots, as punitive action followed nations that “disappoint them”.
Speaking to a group of Pacific Island journalists, Admiral Davidson also likened the Chinese latticework of infrastructure materialising around the world to the strategies adopted by Japan in the first half of the 20th century as it sought to dominate the world, leading to the brazen attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941 – and subsequently the beginning of World War II.
He said the US had announced a vision for a “Free and Open Indo-Pacific” and how this vision could be operationalised to achieve mutual goals of security and peace.
He said being “Free” was fundamental to security – being free from economic, political or military coercion, and engaging in fair and reciprocal trade and investment.
“Free”, he said, was also related to values and political systems – respect for individual freedoms, rights and liberties in support of existing international treaties, rules and norms – while “Open” meant unfettered access to seas and airways.
He said countries such as India, Australia, New Zealand and Indonesia also shared this vision.
The US’s National Defense strategy included the threat from North Korea as a nuclear arms state – but American forces were “ready to handle that threat”, Admiral Davidson stressed.
USINDOPACOM includes 380,000 soldiers, sailors, marines, airmen, coast guardsmen and Department of Defense civilians and is responsible for all US military activities in the Indo-Pacific, covering 36 nations, 14 time zones, and more than 50 per cent of the world’s population.
Admiral Davidson said another priority area of USINDOPACOM included the longterm strategic challenge China presented to the region. The US believes China’s longterm strategy is to use its economic leverage for greater political influence in the region.
Aside from pouring money into infrastructure and construction projects across islands in the South Pacific, Admiral Davidson said China was expanding the number of ships and aircraft it had “to disrupt international order and replace it with their own”.
He said China was already expanding diplomatically, establishing bigger embassies, appointing more consulates, and the increasing number of activities by Chinese companies in the region was evident.
China, he said, was also using its Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) to achieve its longterm strategy of world dominance.
He also said the US viewed Russia working closely with China as “a threat” because they have “large nuclear capability”.
The Pacific journalists’ tour is organised by The East–West Center, or the Center for Cultural and Technical Interchange Between East and West, a Hawaii-based education and research organisation established by the US Congress in 1960 to strengthen relations and understanding among the people and nations of Asia, the Pacific, and the United States.