Opinion

By rising to US bait, China has lost its soft power advantage in Asia

China is economically and politically poised to be Asia’s leading soft power, but its aggressive stance in the South China Sea has pushed neighbours towards the US

Beijing can still win its diplomacy contest with Washington, but it will need to regain trust in the region

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Dr Mark J. Valencia is an internationally known maritime policy analyst, political commentator and consultant focused on Asia.

Published: 1:00am, 2 Feb 2023Updated: 3:56am, 2 Feb 2023

With the advantages of geographic permanency and burgeoning economic and political clout, China has a soft power edge in Asia. Its rival – the US – is hobbled by the tyranny of distance, its preoccupation elsewhere, its blatant self-interest and its overly militarist approach to international relations.

But China has played its diplomatic hand poorly. It got arrogant and impatient, and overreached, playing right into the US campaign to isolate and demonise it. Now it is reaping the whirlwind of its foreign policies and actions in Asia.

Indeed, driven by the push of Sinophobia and the pull of US offers to protect them, countries from Australia to Japan and from India to Indonesia are rapidly coalescing into an anti-China security camp.

Japan has crossed the defence policy Rubicon vis-à-vis China. It has declared China “the greatest” strategic challenge. According to Japanese Foreign Minister Hayashi Yoshimasa “its foreign policy to recreate international order to serve its self-interest is a grave concern”.