Op-Ed Contributors

US should rethink strategy

By Wang Hui (China Daily)
Updated: 2010-11-22 07:49

Washington should join hands with regional powers to promote economic growth, regional integration and stability

When projecting its influence in the Asia Pacific region, the United States should remember that it needs to assume a more constructive role in order to be a welcoming and respectable player in regional affairs.

A constructive role means Washington should contribute to regional economic development and integration. As a superpower with international responsibilities, it ought to join hands with regional powers to create a more peaceful and harmonious environment, so that Asian countries can devote themselves to building a better life for their people.

Emerging economies in the Asia-Pacific region are deemed a dynamic force driving the wheels of the global economic recovery. Washington should work to promote trade liberalization and regional economic integration in the region so as to ensure sustained and balanced growth.

Playing a constructive role also requires that Washington should act fairly and objectively whenever there is a row that could jeopardize regional stability. When such disputes occur it should not try to take advantage of the situation to suit its own interests.

Regrettably, over the past two years, during which Washington has trumpeted its "return" to the Asia-Pacific region, its maneuvers have often been unconstructive and divisive.

It has whipped up old disputes in the South China Sea and under the pretexts of navigation freedom and unimpeded commerce, it has tried on several occasions - the East Asia Summit held in Hanoi last month, being just one example - to instigate countries in Southeast Asia to internationalize the South China Sea disputes.

Washington's meddling has imperiled the current peaceful status quo in the region. Worse, it has sowed the seeds of enmity among neighboring countries, which have been enjoying growing bilateral relations with China in recent years.

The sinking of the Cheonan in March, presented the US with a ready excuse to directly interfere in Northeast Asia affairs and since July it has staged several rounds of military exercises in collaboration with the Republic of Korea (ROK) in waters off China's eastern coast.

To Washington, such saber rattling no doubt serves many purposes. It sends a cautionary message to the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), which has been one of the very few countries in the world that openly defies US global leadership. It is also intended to intimidate China, perceived by the US as a challenge to its status as the dominant world power, and it consolidates its relationship with the ROK and reassures other allies of the US' ability to provide timely support if needs be.

The US' show of force and its interference in regional maritime disputes have posed a severe threat to the strategic equilibrium in Northeast Asia. Washington hopes to construct a new strategic balance that will better cater to its own interests in the region.

When US Secretary of State Hilary Clinton elaborated on the US Asia strategy in Hawaii in October, it sent an unmistakable signal to the world that the US wants a leadership role in the region.

What has prompted the US to make such a major strategic shift?

According to Wang Fan, a professor with the China Foreign Affairs University, the primary purpose of the US' Asia strategy adjustment is to retain US leadership in Asia. This is its strategic bottom line. The US fears that China's rapid development and its active cooperation with its neighbors and members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations will marginalize its influence in the region.

The Obama administration is also convinced that when Washington shifted its strategy to anti-terrorism after Sept 11, 2001, some tendencies unfavorable to the US emerged in Asia.

However, while many Chinese and overseas observers say the US' intention is to counterbalance or contain China, Xu Hui, a professor with the National Defense University, says Sino-US ties have been growing better and better, with rising interdependency and deepening cooperation in a wide range of fields.

"Cooperation always outweighs enmity. We should evaluate bilateral ties from a historical perspective and continue to expand common interests while learning to manage the differences," Xu stresses.

When observing or predicting the security situation in Asia Pacific, two basic facts of the region should not be ignored, Xu says.

First, peace and development are the common choice of Asian countries, and they have been benefiting from this for the past 30 years.

Second, the concerned parties have so far been successful in keeping bilateral disputes at bay so that they don't affect regional cooperation and stability.

"This is enough to prove that Asians have the wisdom and ability to pursue common development while managing their disputes or differences," Xu says.

Entangling itself ever deeper in bilateral disputes is not in the US' national interests. Therefore, it should not be a policy choice of Washington when seeking a bigger role in Asia.

The author is a writer for China Daily.