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Opinion | To help defuse US-China tensions, Asian states must agree on America’s role in region
- From Washington’s end, the rivalry is driven by unrealistic assumptions about its future role in Asia
- To balance China, leading Asian countries should have a frank discussion about Washington’s role in Asia and convey their views plainly to the US
Reading Time:4 minutes
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In Asia, an old threat to peace is returning. For many decades, it has seemed almost unthinkable that the region’s major powers could again engage in a full-scale war, as they did 75 years ago.
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Today, the United States and China confront each other as bitter rivals. Each seeks strategic dominance in East Asia in the “Asian century”: the US wants to retain the primacy it has exercised for over 100 years, and China wants to take its place.
The stakes are high. Neither side seeks war – in fact, both are keen to avoid it – but each seems to assume it can get what it wants without a conflict. Both are increasingly engaging in military posturing in a bid to convince the other to withdraw from the contest.
The dangers of this situation are acute. A minor clash in somewhere like the South China Sea or the Taiwan Strait could happen at any time, and escalate into a full-scale regional war, and even a nuclear war.
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And once the fighting starts, neither side is likely to show restraint.
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