The goal of the Obama administration’s ‘pivot to Asia’ was encircling and containing China. This was officially denied but was evident from the facts and, therefore, naturally was transparently clear to China’s leadership,consequently considerably increasing tensions in the Pacific region.
A new element in the ‘pivot’ was the clear US administration calculation that China was now sufficiently strong that the US alone could not by itself feel sure of winning a contest with China in the Pacific. Therefore the US administration attempted to construct an ‘anti-China alliance’
US policy steps in line with the ‘pivot’ only made sense in that framework - stationing US military forces in Australia; announcing the Diaoyu Islands were included in the military alliance with Japan; stating 60% of US military forces would be in the Pacific; encouraging Philippine challenges to China, seeking agreements with Vietnam clearly de facto aimed against China.
China undoubtedly attempted to persuade the US against a course of confrontation. In June 2013, shortly after becoming president, Xi Jinping went to California, for a summit with President Obama, to try to establish US-China relations based on what China terms mutual respect for 'core interests'/a ‘new type of relation’ between powers. Regretfully the US did not change its policies. If there was a personal coolness at the Xi-Obama press conference after the APEC summit, as some commentators have suggested, this was possibly due to the fact that Xi’s personal attempt to head off a US-China confrontation had been rebuffed.
Slightly over a year later, around the APEC and G20 summits in November 2014, it is evident that China’s growing strength has won a decisive victory against the US confrontationist policy. But, regretfully, as will be seen, US neo-con forces have not concluded this fight is strategically damaging but merely that the terrain of confrontation with China must be shifted.
Complete story at - Key Trends in Globalisation
A new element in the ‘pivot’ was the clear US administration calculation that China was now sufficiently strong that the US alone could not by itself feel sure of winning a contest with China in the Pacific. Therefore the US administration attempted to construct an ‘anti-China alliance’
US policy steps in line with the ‘pivot’ only made sense in that framework - stationing US military forces in Australia; announcing the Diaoyu Islands were included in the military alliance with Japan; stating 60% of US military forces would be in the Pacific; encouraging Philippine challenges to China, seeking agreements with Vietnam clearly de facto aimed against China.
China undoubtedly attempted to persuade the US against a course of confrontation. In June 2013, shortly after becoming president, Xi Jinping went to California, for a summit with President Obama, to try to establish US-China relations based on what China terms mutual respect for 'core interests'/a ‘new type of relation’ between powers. Regretfully the US did not change its policies. If there was a personal coolness at the Xi-Obama press conference after the APEC summit, as some commentators have suggested, this was possibly due to the fact that Xi’s personal attempt to head off a US-China confrontation had been rebuffed.
Slightly over a year later, around the APEC and G20 summits in November 2014, it is evident that China’s growing strength has won a decisive victory against the US confrontationist policy. But, regretfully, as will be seen, US neo-con forces have not concluded this fight is strategically damaging but merely that the terrain of confrontation with China must be shifted.
Complete story at - Key Trends in Globalisation
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