In America's Asia, China is not the all-powerful dragon

American foreign policy is transforming with a “pivot” to Asia, and a full frontal stare at China. A new Asian architecture with the United States as a strong pole is no longer in doubt. India will be another with Japan and Australia holding up the remaining ends. All this to balance one China and its “peaceful rise”. Developments over the past ten days are monumental and interlinked. Just savour the synchronicity and the barely hidden messages from all concerned. There is economic heft, military muscle and strategic thinking in America’s new Asia policy and if all goes well, the mesh created with other countries would be large and strong enough to counter China’s rapid military expansion and periodic attempts to claim everything around it, be it water or land.[caption id=“attachment_135492” align=“alignleft” width=“380” caption=“US President Barack Obama (R) meets with China’s Premier Wen Jiabao on the sidelines of the East Asia Summit in Nusa Dua, Bali, on 19 November 2011. Jason Reed/Reuters”]  [/caption] Well, all countries—even Myanmar—have grown tired of China’s unique diplomatic style and would like Beijing to adapt instead of consistently adapting themselves. China’s maximalist negotiating strategy boils down to this: “What is mine is mine, what is yours is also mine. Now let’s talk into the next millennium.” Stop this game, Asia is saying with a little help from Washington. The opening shot: President Obama tells China to “play by the rules” in trade and security against the breathtaking background of Hawaii as he hosts the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum and turns it into a strong pitch for the Trans-Pacific Partnership. He essentially re-launches the TPP with the US in lead, inviting all but China, to make one gigantic trade park with no barriers. Moving on to Australia, he announces a permanent military presence of US Marines, albeit small (250) in number but large in symbolism. They will use Australian bases and conduct training exercises with some aircraft in tow. Given that Australia’s economy is increasingly reliant on China, Obama’s announcement is a strategic move to balance the lop-sidedness. America as a Pacific power is “here to stay,” says the US president, free of Iraq and hoping to be free of Afghanistan. Meanwhile, Australia signals strongly it will sell uranium to India as Prime Minister Manmohan Singh takes his turn to tick off the Chinese at the East Asia Summit in Bali. He essentially tells Premier Wen Jiabao that India plans to stick to oil exploration in Vietnam. If China has a problem, it should settle its claims on the South China Sea under international law. Ouch. India, which “pivoted” a few years ago with its Look East policy, meets the US on the battleground. For good measure, Singh declares there are “no irritants whatsoever” plaguing Indo-US relations. AmerIndia? Over in Manila, Hillary Clinton, the energised secretary of state, recommits the US to the defence treaty with the Philippines. In a ceremony dripping with blatant messaging, she signs the Manila Declaration aboard the USS Fitzgerald, a giant missile destroyer, calling for “freedom of navigation, unimpeded lawful commerce and transit of people across the seas”. It is a deliberate statement for the benefit of China, which wants to silence the five other claimants to the South China Sea—Taiwan, Brunei, Vietnam, Malaysia and the Philippines—through long, never-ending bilateral negotiations. Clinton has also been deputed to visit Myanmar, the first US secretary of state to do so in 50 years. This is one country where India was ahead and pragmatic. Obama’s public lecture in New Delhi on Burma now sounds anachronistic. China was the reason for India to engage the Burmese junta and China is the reason for Obama’s turnaround. It helps that Burma is self-correcting and realizing it doesn’t want Beijing to be its sole benefactor. No, despite appearances this is not the world ganging up on China even though Beijing likes to cast it that way because it relieves the burden of having to introspect and accommodate. The new security and economic lattice is a hedge in case of a China gone wild. While it is defensive, it is also an invitation to Beijing to think differently and be a part of “vasudhaiva kutumbakam”. Do a little give and take, show a little respect for the little guys who live down river. China is welcome to join hands with TPP but it must meet standards of openness and labour. Yes, the US is handpicking the countries but it has also left the door open for Beijing to enter – if it wants to but under certain conditions. Will the TPP have heft if China is absent as an editorial in Global Times, a Communist Party paper, asked? Yes, the collective weight would be impressive, not spit-worthy. No doubt, the high-profile US pivot has made China uneasy but it is not to target the Middle Kingdom, only to signal that those at the receiving end of its “assertive” diplomacy have options. They can pool together and with Uncle Sam’s backing make the South China Sea disputes into an international issue. India, an old supporter of Vietnam, is already out there. The joint statement during the Vietnamese president’s recent visit quoted chapter and verse about how disputes in the “East Sea/South China Sea should be resolved… in accordance with universally recognized principles of international law, including the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea”. India has room to maneuver in the emerging environment and an opportunity to help write the new rules. The apparent coordination with Washington shows New Delhi’s strategic autonomy is with a certain tilt. The US has already openly “bet” on India and despite the difficulties over various issues, the trajectory is up and up. China is not happy but can it really blame anyone else for this coming together of The Rest? Commentary in China’s state-run media has ranged from raising the spectre of “an all-out confrontation” (Global Times) to restating China’s long-held opposition to “involvement of external forces” (Xinhua) in its neighbourhood to ridiculing the “stagnant US economy” as an engine of growth. A Global Times commentary on 18 November (US Asia-Pacific Strategy Brings Steep Price) went so far as to warn that “will be no room for those who choose to depend economically on China while looking to the US to guarantee their security”. Them are fighting words but cooler heads will hopefully prevail. If they don’t, China will have proved the worst fears of its neighbours.