China sees maritime periphery as ‘deeply hostile’, says Rudd

AUSTRALIA: Former Australian prime minister Kevin Rudd has told the West Point military academy in the United States that China sees its maritime periphery as ‘‘deeply hostile’’ and the region as allied against it.

He urged America’s future military leaders to understand how Chinese leaders think ‘‘and how the world should most productively engage with them’’.

‘‘The Chinese are fundamentally fixated on the formidable array of US military assets deployed by US Pacific Command across the entire region,’’ Rudd said.

China’s response was to seek to fracture the ring of US allies, he said, which includes Australia.

China had missile forces targeted in a strategy of ‘‘airsea denial’’ to cause doubt in the minds of US Pacific Command on the ‘‘winnability’’ of large US military operations in support of Taiwan, or in the South China Sea, Rudd added.

But China’s softer economic engagement in the region was the bottom line, he said.

‘‘China has already become a more important economic partner than the United States to practically every country in wider East Asia.

‘‘From economic power proceeds political power; from political power proceeds foreign policy power; and from foreign policy power proceeds strategic power. That is China’s strategy.’’

China would replace the US as the world’s largest economy, and would begin to challenge US regional, but not global military, dominance, he said.

As it rose, China would want to change the global order, Rudd said, but it was not clear by how much.

Chinese President Xi Jinping was the most powerful leader since Mao Zedong, after his anticorruption campaign had not only cleaned up the country’s ‘‘almost industriallevel corruption’’ but also cleared away political opponents.

‘‘For the rest of the world, Xi Jinping represents a formidable partner, competitor or adversary, depending on the paths that are chosen in the future.’’

The former prime minister’s speech to West Point, a 200-year-old US military institution, was made earlier this month as China’s annual rubber-stamp parliament opened.

At the weekend, the National People’s Congress continued to approve big changes from past Chinese political practice, driven by Xi.

Xi’s close ally and former chief of the corruption campaign, Wang Qishan, was elevated to vicepresident of China, with no term limits.

Rudd said in his speech there was no real prospect of pushback within China against Xi in the foreseeable future.

Xi’s form of authoritarianism asserted the party over the state, and ideology over pragmatic policy, he said. – Fairfax

"The Chinese are fundamentally fixated on the formidable array of US military assets deployed by US Pacific Command across the entire region." Kevin Rudd, former Australian PM