Asian AngleUS should step up diplomacy in Southeast Asia amid China’s growing economic influence

As China’s economic influence grows, the US needs to take Asean more seriously with regular visits by top officials including Biden

It also needs to offer wider access to the US market, and understand that a vital safeguard against Chinese domination of the region is a strong Asean

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US President Joe Biden poses for a group photograph with Asean leaders during a special US-Asean summit at the White House in May last year. Photo: Reuters

Published: 10:30am, 26 Aug 2023

A report issued earlier this month by two US-based institutes provides useful proposals to enhance Washington’s profile in Southeast Asia.

Written by a joint task force of the Asia Society’s Centre on US-China relations and the 21st Century China Centrre of the University of California in San Diego, the report was prepared and launched on August 1 after careful consultations with both American and Southeast Asian experts. The proposals it makes are sensible but the challenge lies in their implementation.

It stresses the critical importance of Southeast Asia to US interests and its competition with China. Entitled “Prioritising Southeast Asia in US-China Relations”, it notes the region’s unwillingness to take sides in the US-China rivalry. This is understandable: China is a superpower, and the region benefits from economic cooperation with Beijing, especially in trade and infrastructure development.

The recommendations of the report are sound. One of them is that the United States should not look at the region just through the lens of competition with China but rather on its own merits.