Could China craft a new Pax Sinica?

IN RECENT WEEKS REAL - or fake - news about China-United States tensions have taken on a darker, more ominous turn. There are rumblings that an escalating trade war between China and the US might tip the world including Asean, into economic recession. Even more sensational - or sensationalised - are the accusations that the Chinese military plans to use its recently built airfields on disputed islands in the South China Sea as bases to launch attacks on the US.

The notion that China will be America's primary strategic competitor in every aspect - technological, geopolitical, even militarily - is headlined in every major Western media. Whereas in the past, China would have gone to great pains to deny such ambitions, today China is clearly prepared to take on a more assertive, confident, and competitive role.

Asean's own interests and positioning will be uncomfortably situated somewhere between the two increasingly divergent US versus China worldviews. Indeed, whether there is or can be a single united Asean stance is questionable. And therein lies the dilemma and the challenge, if Asean is split and divided amid growing geopolitical tensions.