[China & US]A Look at the US-China Competitive Coexistence from the US-ASEAN Summit
Nie Wenjuan, Associate Professor, Institute of International Relations, School of Foreign Service
Originally published in China-US Focus, link here.
On 12-13 May, the US-ASEAN Summit was held in Washington after a six-year hiatus. The summit was significant for bilateral relations, with President Biden calling it a "new era" in the relationship between the US and ASEAN.
Needless to say, there are strong connotations of great power rivalry behind this summit. The timing of the summit shows that the US still holds a high level of strategic concern for the Indo-Pacific region, given the ongoing conflict between Russia and Ukraine in Europe and the fact that the US is largely distracted by the war in Europe. China and the US are at odds with each other, with old tensions in bilateral affairs unmitigated, and with the Russia-Ukraine conflict adding another layer of disagreement. The summit also "insinuated" that the US and China are in competition with each other. It is difficult to tell from the summit which side will have the upper hand in the competition in Southeast Asia, but it is interesting to note that the summit gives us a window into how the US and China will compete in Southeast Asia.
The economic sector will be a key area of competition between the US and China in Southeast Asia. The U.S.-ASEAN Summit issued a Shared Vision Statement covering eight issue areas and 28 policy recommendations, with epidemic cooperation at the top of the list, followed by economic ties and six related policy recommendations.
President Biden's announcement at the summit that he would provide more than US$150 million in aid to the Southeast Asian region also generated much debate, as did President Xi's emphasis on China's economic cooperation with ASEAN at the 30th anniversary summit of the China-ASEAN dialogue in 2021, when China offered to provide US$1.5 billion in development assistance to ASEAN over the next three years.
In addition, during his visit to South Korea and Japan at the end of May, President Biden proposed an "Indo-Pacific Economic Framework", which was seen in part as an alternative to the US not being able to join the CPTPP, and as a counterweight or competition to China's growing economic influence in the region.
Of course, in the economic sphere, there are many potential differences between China and the US, and even competition will be intense, but compared to other regions of the world, the two sides here focus on economic competition in the low political sphere, rather than military security competition in the high political sphere, which has a relatively benign competitive overtone, and it cannot be ruled out that the competitive interaction between the two sides will promote the further opening of the region's economic, trade and investment as well as the relevant rules and regulations It cannot be ruled out that the competitive interaction between the two sides will promote the further opening up of the region's trade and investment and the continuous improvement
of relevant rules and regulations.
Ideological competition does not dominate the discourse of political competition between the US and China in the region. In the US diplomatic strategy, democracy is an important diplomatic principle and tool. In Europe, the US has formed a firm strategic alliance system with Western European countries based on the criteria of democratisation and shared values. But in Southeast Asia, democracy has not been an important criterion for the US to classify its enemies and friends. At the US-ASEAN summit, the issue of Burma was mentioned by both sides, but in a relatively conservative manner, and the US similarly did not magnify the issue of democracy and human rights within other ASEAN countries in such a way that it would impede the development of mutual relations.
In Southeast Asia, the US does not define friends simply by democratic criteria, and naturally it cannot define adversaries or enemies simply by democratic criteria. In the shared vision statement issued at the US-ASEAN Summit, not only was China not directly named, but it was also not described in ideologically charged terms. This also reflects the relatively limited, if not counterproductive, appeal of
the word "democracy" in the geopolitics of Southeast Asia. In response, of course, China's reaction to the summit has been relatively mild.
In Southeast Asia, the principle of the limited nature of military security competition has gradually become a dominant theme in the interaction between the parties. The military security competition between the US and China in Southeast Asia is not a zero-sum contest for strategic space, such as the strategic space dilemma demonstrated in the Russia-Ukraine conflict, but rather a competitive coexistence within a given space, as manifested in the way the South China Sea issue is framed in the Joint Vision statement. The US and ASEAN countries have expressed a willingness to cooperate at sea in the South China Sea region,
but the goal of this cooperation is clearly not the resolution of territorial and territorial sea disputes in a zero-sum manner, but the prevention of certain specific behavioural activities. This is more of an effort to draw boundaries and set rules for great power competition, reflecting the rules of the game of "live and let live".
At the same time, China's approach to the summit is equally "welcoming but principled". Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian made it clear that China and the United States are both Asia-Pacific countries and are perfectly capable of having a common "circle of friends", and that China welcomes any cooperation initiative that promotes long-term sustainable development and common prosperity in the region. In other words, China does not oppose or even welcome the active presence of the United States in the region, but opposes zero-sum games, confrontation between blocs, and the exacerbation of conflicts by choosing sides.
In summary, as competition between the two powers becomes a major feature of the international system today, the challenge for both countries is how to manage it and achieve coexistence in the face of competition. In this sense, the Southeast Asia region has become an important testing ground for China-US geopolitical competition, and the summit has also provided us with an important insight, namely that economic competition, light ideology and limited military security competition are expected to become a model for future China-US coexistence in the competition.